One Word to Change the World
by Agent Malkere
Summary: In just one universe, Ultear calls out to her mother instead of turning away and the fate of Fairy Tail and the world is irrevocably altered. Glimpses of a world where a single word made all the difference. (Eventual Gajevy, Cobkina, Bixanna, and others.)
1. One Word to Save the World

_**One Word to Change the World**_

 _By Agent_ _Malkere_ _  
_

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters.  
**

* * *

 _The universe is made up of thousands and millions of moments. Some of them are small – unimportant in the grand scheme of things. And some of them are so profound that they send ripples through the fabric of reality and can fundamentally change the world._

Ultear didn't know how long she had been running. Days? Weeks? It didn't matter. All she knew was that her feet were frozen and raw and that the trees around her were finally starting to look familiar.

Home. She was getting close to home and Mama. She need to find Mama. And then she heard it. A voice. A painfully familiar voice that sounded like home and safety and warm hugs all rolled together. Mama.

Ultear stumbled to a stop next to a tree at the top of a hill and looked around desperately. The sound had been close. Where was she?

The world held its breath as reality teetered between tragedy and joy.

 _In a thousand universes, Ultear stepped forward. She saw the two boys, she heard the laughter, and her heart broke. Shattered beyond any repair. In a thousand universes, she stepped back, silent. In a thousand universes, she turned and ran back into the dark hands waiting for her and the world_ _ **burned**_ _for one child's broken heart._

 _But in one universe, just one, Ultear broke the silence instead._

"Mama?" Ultear called, pushing herself away from the tree. Surely, if that had been her mother's voice, she would come and find her now. She took a hesitant step forward. She saw two boys in the clearing below and her mother standing with them. For a fraction of a second her heart quailed – she had been replaced. But her mother was not laughing – her eyes were wide and her face was unbelievably pale – and the two boys looked confused. And a fraction of a second was all the doubt that Ultear was allowed because her mother was staring right at her with a fearful hope in her eyes.

"Ultear? _**ULTEAR!**_ " She had never seen her mother move so fast. One moment Ultear was on the ground, her legs barely supporting her weight, the next she was being lifted into the air and crushed to her mother's chest. Then her mother's legs gave out and they were both collapsing to the snowy forest floor. Ultear was so relieved that she couldn't even cry as she wrapped her arms around her mother's neck, but that was okay. Mama was crying hard enough for both of them. "You're alive. You're _alive._ Those bastards told me you were dead, but you're _alive_. I swear, I will never let anyone take you away from me _ever again_."

The words were mumbled into Ultear's hair between sobs. Ultear's eyes drifted closed. It didn't matter that her mother was shaking and holding her so tightly that she would have bruises later. For the first time since she had woken up in that awful place, Ultear felt warm and safe.

She was home.

 _And in that one universe a mother clung to her daughter and ripples spread out around them like a single raindrop on a pond. And the world_ _ **changed**_ _._

* * *

 _A/N: For any of you wondering, will anything come of this very brief first chapter? The answer is: yes. I am more than thirty thousand words deep in this sucker and it is finally time to start sharing it with the world. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you here again!  
_


	2. A Place to Call Home

_Chapter 2: A Place to Call Home_

* * *

Nobody had been able to convince Erza to leave her stolen sword behind. Simon and Jellal hadn't even tried. She seemed more relaxed with her battered sword and makeshift breastplate. The only reason she didn't still have the sword in her hand was because her hands were busy holding onto Jellal and Simon, like she was afraid they might be taken away from her at any moment. Jellal didn't mind. He'd been just about to give up hope when she had rescued him. He didn't want to let her or Simon out of his sight either.

"I wish the others had been able to come with us," murmured Simon. His face was still heavily bandaged. Between the three of them there were only four eyes now. Thankfully, aside from his eye, Simon's only major injury had been a concussion. All three of them had bandages around their wrists, but they had already been warned that the scars wouldn't fully heal.

"Me, too," Jellal agreed. He was going to miss Sho and Wally and Millianna.

"They're adopted, not gone forever. We'll see them again," Erza stated with more confidence than any of them actually felt. "They're too young to join a guild. Besides, we don't know if they have magic or not."

"We don't know if _I_ have magic or not." Simon's voice was soft. He flinched slightly at the dual glare he received from Erza and Jellal.

"Of _course_ you have magic," Erza declared. Something in her tone implied that she would _make_ Simon be able to use magic if she had to.

"You can't just _decide_ that someone has magic," Simon began, but Erza wasn't listening. The Tower had changed all of them, and the uprising had changed them again. Erza had somehow traded places with Jellal as the leader of their little group. She wasn't as quiet and nervous anymore. She was tenacious and determined, verging on bullheaded. The worst had already happened to them, and they had survived. She had saved them all. Erza was also the reason that the three of them were on their way to join a wizard guild instead of waiting for the Magic Council to place them in a home like the other children from the Tower.

"You do have magic," Erza insisted.

"Definitely," Jellal agreed. "Just because it hasn't manifested, yet, doesn't mean that it's not there." Jellal wasn't even sure what exactly his magic did. All he knew was that he'd flung those two masked bastards across the room with a burst of golden light when they had tried a second time to stop Erza from rescuing him. It had actually been pretty terrifying. "Maybe you'll just get to pick what type of magic you learn instead. Besides, Grandpa Rob knew."

This was an indisputable fact. Grandpa Rob had been right about Erza, and he'd been right about Jellal. He must have been right about Simon as well.

"I suppose." Simon still didn't sound entirely convinced, but his voice wasn't as disheartened as before. They walked on in silence for a few more minutes.

Even a full week after escaping from the Tower, Jellal was still enjoying the novelty of trees. The island the Tower had been built on was barren rock with only a few half-dead weeds clinging to the crevasses in the stones. The air had always tasted of salt and death. Now, the air tasted of new life, grass, and fallen leaves. His joints no longer ached from too much time walking on unforgiving stone.

They reached the crest of a hill, and there spread out below them was Magnolia. Canals snaked through like great, watery roads that glittered in the midday sun, and right on the far edge of town gleamed the golden onion-dome of Fairy Tail's guildhall just like Grandpa Rob had always described it. They had made it. They had really made it.

Erza started laughing, and soon Jellal realized that he a Simon were laughing as well. And why not? They had all assumed that they would die building the Tower. No, they had _known_ that they would die building the Tower, because everyone did eventually. It had only been a matter of time. A matter of when and how. And Grandpa Rob's tales of magic and being a guild wizard had been a kind of beautiful dream that Jellal had been reluctant to indulge in. He hadn't given up, but he'd been afraid to hope, because what was the point? And then Erza had been taken and Jellal had done something stupid and brave that hadn't really helped, but it had spurred Erza to do something courageous and _smart_. One child had no hope of stopping all the Tower guards, but every single prisoner on the island together _did_. And now here they were, standing on the top of a hill, looking down at the place Grandpa Rob had told them so much about. Jellal kept expecting to wake up and find that he was still tied to that pole. It was all just too good to be true. He never had this kind of luck. Misfortune had stalked him all his short life. What else was there to do but laugh?

The three of them took off down the hill at a run. It was awkward and ungainly because Erza still had a hold of both Jellal and Simon's hands. It didn't matter, though, because this felt like freedom and hope and like all their luck really had changed permanently for the better. Jellal couldn't remember the last time he had felt so _alive_.

By the time they reached the edge of town, all three of them were out of breath and gasping, but none of them could stop grinning like mad. It look much longer to navigate through the unfamiliar streets. There were so many _people_. Jellal had never been in such a big town before and neither had Erza and Simon. It was confusing and kind of overwhelming. Magnolia could probably fit four of Jellal's childhood village. People eyed their ragged clothes curiously, but nobody tried to stop them. Finally they turned a corner, and there it was.

Fairy Tail's guildhall stood tall and proud. An orange banner with the same crest that had been on Grandpa Rob's back hung above the entrance. Next to him, a silent tear slid down Erza's cheek from her undamaged eye. Jellal gave her hand a squeeze. Erza squared her shoulders, expression even more determined than ever.

Together they walked forward, a united front. Simon and Jellal each placed their free hand on the doors and pushed. The doors swung back to reveal aged wood and tables full of laughing people. And sitting on top of the bar in the back of the room was a tiny, old man drinking from a flagon who looked a lot like the 'Makarov' Grandpa Rob had told them about. All three of them were smiling again – grinning so big it hurt – because they were _here_ , and it was _real_ , and they had _made it_. And who cared what came next? Because this right here – this was a miracle. There were no stone walls, no iron bars, just light and laughter. And it felt, just a little bit, like home.


	3. Can You Hear Me?

_Chapter 3: Can You Hear Me?_

* * *

Erik was good with locks. It was one of the reasons he was still alive. The other reason was Cubelios. If she hadn't bitten that man… But it was best not to think about that. They said that the Council had destroyed the foundations of the Tower, and if Cubelios's bite hadn't killed the man who had implanted the lacrima in Erik's chest, then it had certainly slowed him down. Maybe he'd be content with the other children, and not come looking for them.

Cubelios hissed gently against his cheek and nudged him with her tiny tongue. He patted her head with one finger and returned his attention to the lock. Erik inserted his two thin strips of metal into the keyhole and then listened very carefully. It was amazing how easy it was to pick locks if you just listened.

The building was big and old – at least a hundred years – and backed onto the harbor. Or maybe it was a lake – Erik couldn't tell. Either way it was on the edge of town, and it had obviously been years since anyone had changed the locks. They hadn't even installed any magical booby-traps. That was just lazy. Erik always avoided buildings with that extra, humming lair of magical protection. There was no one in this building that Erik could hear. …And his hearing was very good. A little too good.

It had always been sharp, but ever since he and the other children had escaped from the Tower it just kept getting better. Sometimes… Sometimes he caught stray voices that weren't voices at all but thoughts. He didn't just _pretend_ to understand the meaning of Cubelios's hisses any more – he actually could. It was both amazing and terrifying. And it was probably that man's fault.

The lock finally popped open, and Erik sat back on his heels. He absently rubbed the scar on his chest with the heel of his hand. It was long, ragged and ugly, and the only evidence of what had been done to him aside from his now pointed ears.

The lucky children had been worked to death on the Tower. The unlucky ones had been… altered. Even after they had escaped the Tower the man had still found them. Only Erik had gotten away.

Cubelios tightened gently around his neck and fluttered her tiny wings. Right, he needed to focus. They needed food. Well, Erik needed food. Cubelios was still small enough to be able to live on the crickets she caught, but she had begun to grow rapidly. She'd gained a whole _inch_ in a week. Crickets wouldn't sustain her forever, and Erik couldn't live on crickets. Besides, winter was coming. He really needed to find a coat of some sort. His battered shirt didn't even have _sleeves_ anymore, and the knees of his pants were long gone. Shoes would be nice, but that was more wishful thinking than anything. He hadn't had shoes since before the Tower.

The inside of the building was dark, warm, and welcoming. He slipped through the door and shut it softly behind him. His bare feet didn't make a sound against the wooden floor. Enticing smells wafted through the air. He'd struck gold. This place, whatever it was, had a kitchen. If he had still believed in any gods, he would have fallen to his knees and sobbed in gratitude. Instead, he followed his nose and slunk through the pitch black halls.

Never, in all his life, had Erik seen such a massive room for preparing food. It was mind boggling. He stood for a moment in awe. It was like in one of those fairy tales. Shelves lined every wall along with a massive cool cupboard and an equally massive pantry. This time Erik really did feel tears begin to run down his face. It was so overwhelming he didn't even know where to start. Well, maybe there was some leftover meat in the cool cupboard. Meat lasted longer in your stomach than bread. Just the idea sounded wonderful.

He could practically walk inside the cool cupboard, it was so big. Most of the things in there were still raw, but he found a piece of cooked roast beef the size of both his fists together wrapped in brown paper and some milk. Erik pulled them out, and sat on the floor gnawing on the meat. It was quite possibly the best thing he had ever tasted. Occasionally he ripped off small pieces and fed them to Cubelios. She needed to keep up her strength, too. He stopped after devouring about a third of the roast beef. Best to save it for later. Who knew when he might get this lucky again? He took another sip of the milk, because he knew that that wouldn't keep. As far as his taste buds were concerned, it was like drinking cream.

Roast beef carefully rewrapped and milk bottle in hand, Erik turned his attention to the pantry. He had to take a look before he slipped back out the way he had come. Something in there smelled absolutely _divine_. The pantry actually _was_ large enough that he could walk into it. There was enough room that three people could easily sleep on the floor. Tall shelves stretched all the way to the shadowy ceiling.

Erik sniffed. The wonderful smell was coming from up high. He didn't want to send Cubelios up by herself – who knew what might be lurking up there? They would go up together. That's what friends did after all.

Climbing the shelves was easy, and Erik was still small and light. They didn't even wobble under his additional weight. The delicious smell was coming from a tin on the very top shelf shoved almost all the way to the back. There was some sort of weird black symbol printed on the front of it, but Erik ignored that. Even if he'd been able to see it better, it wouldn't have made a difference. He couldn't read.

Once he was on the ground again, Erik huddled against the large cloth flour sacks in the far back corner to examine his prize. Prying off the lid revealed that it was full of some sort of white powder. It smelled even better now that it was open. He dipped a finger in and licked it. His eyes went wide. It tasted like eating sunlight sparkling off the ocean with just enough of a sour edge to give it a satisfying zig. It was like eating heaven.

Eating the powder was difficult and messy. After a moment's thought, he carefully dumped two handfuls into the remainder of his milk, swished it around until it dissolved, and drank it that way instead. It was fabulous. That tin of magical whatever-it-was was definitely coming with him.

Erik finished off the last of his milk and powder and felt his eyelids begin to droop. He couldn't remember the last time he had actually been _full_. Cubelios was making contented reptile sighs from around his neck. He knew he shouldn't linger, but the flour sacks were so comfy, and the close darkness made him feel safer than he ever had sleeping under the stars. It was still hours away from dawn. Closing his eyes for just a _few_ minutes wouldn't hurt anything….

"I'm telling you, Master, somebody picked the lock on the back door. It was open when I got here!"

Erik's eyes popped open. A stream of sunlight was leaking in through the open crack of the pantry door. If he listened, he could now hear _dozens_ of heartbeats. He started to shake.

He'd fallen asleep! How had he fallen asleep?! How had he not woken up when the first person unlocked the front doors?! He curled further back against the flour sacks. How could he have been so stupid? He was trapped. Boxed in. They'd find him and beat him for stealing, or worse yet, give him back to that man. Erik clutched his tin against his chest and tipped his head down so that he was hugging Cubelios with his chin. A single tear leaked from the corner of his left eye, and he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to keep his breathing as shallow and soft as possible. Maybe… Maybe no one would need anything from the pantry today. Maybe no one would notice him huddled up in the corner.

There were footsteps. They were getting closer.

"Did either of you leave the pantry open?"

Oh, no.

Erik's world exploded into light.

"OH MY GOD! IS THAT THE RAT POISON?!"

Erik wanted to clap his hands over his ears, but he didn't want to let go of his tin of powder in case somebody tried to take it away from him. He tried to curl into a ball and disappear. It didn't work.

"Please," he whispered. "Please, don't hurt me. I was hungry."

"There now, child. No one is going to hurt you. We have plenty of food to share." The voice was kind and old and reminded Erik of a wrinkly tree or perhaps a walnut. But most importantly, it sounded honest. Erik had gotten very good at being able to hear honesty.

He hesitantly cracked an eye open. A tiny old man was standing in front of him, smiling. Two other people were standing outside the pantry door, peering in uncertainly.

"Really?" Erik asked slowly.

"Of course, I could never stand by and watch a young person such as yourself go hungry."

Erik uncurled slightly. The old man was still telling the truth.

"You're- You're not going to beat me?"

"No. But if you'd like to come out of there, I could offer you a nice, hot breakfast instead." The old man extended a hand, his words still ringing with honesty and kindness.

"O-okay." Erik stood, gingerly unfolding himself. He'd barely moved as he slept and his muscles were stiff. Nobody had told him to put the tin back, so Erik held onto it. Around his neck Cubelios hissed and unfurled her wings at his unexpected movement. The old man blinked in surprise. He obviously hadn't noticed her.

"And who is this?"

Erik hesitated again, but every fiber of his being was screaming that he could trust this man.

"This is Cubelios. She's a dragon."

"A dragon? Really?"

"Yeah, because she has wings, and snakes don't have wings, and I'm a dragon slayer, so she must be a dragon."

"You're a dragon slayer?" the man asked. Erik bit his lip. He hadn't meant to say that. "You know, my grandson is a dragon slayer as well, but I've never met a dragon before. It's a pleasure to meet you, Cubelios. My name is Makarov Dreyar, and I am the master of this guild."

Cubelios eyed Makarov wearily, then hissed and flickered out her tongue in approval.

"She says she likes you," Erik told him. Cubelios was an excellent judge of character. He felt his shoulders start to relax ever so slightly.

"Well, she obviously has excellent taste," Makarov smiled. "Do you have a name, young man?"

"…Erik." He decided that he liked the way that Makarov smiled. He followed him out of the pantry. The kitchen was even more impressive in the daylight. A man and a woman were standing outside the pantry door. They were eyeing Erik's tin and didn't look very pleased about it. It must be special – that was why it had been hidden and hard to reach. Erik hugged it a little tighter.

"Master, shouldn't we-" the woman began, reaching for Erik's tin. He tensed.

"Leave the child alone, Evra. It obviously hasn't hurt him."

The woman retracted her hand but still didn't look particularly happy.

Everything seemed to be huge in this place – not just the kitchen. Makarov led Erik into a big room filled with tables and benches and people. They seemed to be awfully rowdy for so early in the morning.

"What is this place?" Erik finally asked, eyes wide.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail, Magnolia's most prominent wizard guild!"

"You mean Magnolia's _only_ wizard guild!" someone called, and there was a general round of laughter.

"Feh! Ignore those hoodlums!"

Erik soon found himself sitting at one of the many tables waiting for the promised hot breakfast. No one had taken away his tin or tried to touch Cubelios. It was… nice. He flinched as the big guildhall doors banged open. Loud noises always lead to bad things.

"She ruined my cake! That midriff-baring hussy! I'm going to stomp her face flat!"

"Come on, Erza. You know that it was an accident… this time."

"Grrrr…."

"Nice try, but I don't think that helped, Jellal."

Three children had entered the guild. They all looked about Erik's age – perhaps a touch older. There was a tall boy with brown hair and a long, thick scar along his right jaw, a shorter boy with royal blue hair and clan tattoo spanning either side of his right eye, and a girl with bright, scarlet hair who was wearing plate armor. Erik didn't recognize their faces, but those voices… he knew those voices. They paused when they noticed Erik staring at them.

"Oh, hello. Are you knew?" The blue haired boy had a nice smile. He sounded very genuine. He extended a hand towards Erik. "I'm Jellal Fernandes."

Erik stared at the hand for a moment, trying to remember what he was supposed to do with it. Eventually, he gave it a hesitant shake, keeping an eye on Jellal's reactions to make sure he was doing it right. Jellal's wrists each had a bracelet of faded scar tissue just like his.

"I'm Erik. I remember your voices." He looked at the red-headed girl. "You were the one who told us all to stand up and fight."

Her eyes went wide like saucers and then flicked down to his wrists almost involuntarily.

"You were there?" she breathed. He nodded and then squeaked in fright as he was abruptly crushed against her breastplate in a hug. Cubelios let out an alarmed hiss. "I thought we had met everybody from the Tower. I don't know how we missed you, but I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Um, Erza?" Jellal began hesitantly. "I think you're crushing him."

Erza instantly let go.

"Oh, I am so sorry! Sometimes I get carried away."

"It's, uh, it's alright." A clank caught Erik's attention. He gaped at the massive heap of steaming eggs that had been set down in front of him. He scooped some up with his fingers. Delicious. He offered some to Cubelios, but she was still full from the roast beef. There was only one way this could get better. Erik crack open his tin and shook some of the white powder on top of his eggs and then continued devouring his breakfast. Perfect.

He didn't notice the guildhall go silent.

"Uh… why did you do that?" asked the taller, dark haired boy. He had sat down at Erik's table along with Erza and Jellal.

Erik paused. He had put his tin on the table so he could use both hands to eat and now he pulled it a little closer to him again.

"It tastes good."

"But… it's rat poison."

"Oh." Erik blinked at his tin of magic. Now that he was really looking, he supposed that one picture did look like a skull and crossbones. He rubbed the scar on his chest thoughtfully and then shrugged. "I guess that makes sense then." He added some more to his eggs.

"You can eat poison?" asked Jellal, eyes wide.

"Uh huh."

"We're keeping him," Erza suddenly announced.

"What?! Erza, no, we've talked about this. You can't just decide to keep people!"

"Well, he's clearly a wizard, and nobody else is taking care of him. And- and he was on the Tower. Him joining Fairy Tail is the obvious solution."

"Yes, but there's things you're supposed to do first. Like talk to Master Makarov. Or ask Erik _if he even wants to join_."

Erza pointed a finger at Erik.

"Join Fairy Tail," she ordered.

The dark haired boy pinched the bridge of his nose,

"That's still not asking…."

"Could we?" Erik interrupted. Cubelios lifted her head hopefully. "Could we stay?" Because he'd never been in a place before with so many people who sounded… happy. He didn't want to leave.

"Of course you can." Master Makarov was back and still smiling. "We'd be happy for you both to join our family."

Family.

Erik felt… light and happy. Maybe, just this once, everything was really going to be okay.

* * *

 _A/N: I realize that Erik/Cobra in canon doesn't actually get pointy ears until that filler arc, but this is an AU and I took some artistic liberties. Brain lost access to the Bureau of Magical Development much sooner in this universe than in canon, so he had to continue his experiments elsewhere._

 _Thanks for reading!_


	4. Ashes to Ashes

_Chapter 4: Ashes to Ashes_

* * *

Ash drifted down over the world like black snow and the acrid taste of smoke still filled Ultear's mouth. She wasn't sure how long it had been. Maybe half an hour? Gray was still crying off to one side. Her bones felt like they were still rattling from the demon's roars even though they had been silenced.

It had been an accident. Ultear wasn't sure how a massive monster could sneak up on an entire town, but it had. They had been buying groceries. That had been only hours ago. Just hours ago she and Lyon had been teasing Gray about taking off his clothes in public again and playing keep away with Gray's shirt while her mother bought bread and vegetables. The ground had shaken like an earthquake, and the world had descended into pandemonium. Gray had seen Deliora and lost his mind. Ultear had thought he'd been getting better over the last year, but even together she and Lyon hadn't been able to hold him back. Hadn't been able to stop him from challenging the demon. It didn't matter either way in the end. No one could stop Deliora, but no one could escape it either. They were all going to die. And then Lyon had tried to do something stupid and horrible and brave.

He had tried to save them all.

" _Do you even know what that spell does to the caster?!"_

" _Of course I do! It's the only thing that will stop Deliora – someone has to! But I can't lose any of you! And- And if I do this, I'll accomplish my dream, right? I'll surpass you! I'll surpass you, and I won't lose my family again!"_

But her mother had made a different decision and knocked Lyon unconscious instead.

" _Ur, no!"_

" _No, don't!"_

" _It's alright, Gray. I'll always love you with all my heart, Ultear. Please, take care of your brothers for me."_

" _Of course I will, just please don't leave me!"_

" _I'll never really leave you. Any of you. I'll keep you safe. The world gave you back to me, Ultear, and it was the greatest gift I could ever be given. I was given two more years with my precious daughter and students. I couldn't have been happier. Now it's time for me to repay that debt. Take care of each other. Live and grow and be happy – that's all I've ever wanted for all three of you."_

" _PLEASE! NO!"_

Ultear couldn't cry. She hadn't cried once in the past two years. But she wanted to cry. She wanted to cry so badly it hurt.

"Wh-what happened?" Lyon sat up slowly. "Where's Deliora?" He caught sight of the glacial prison now surrounding the demon. "No. _NO!_ " He was up and running, his face crumbling into devastation. "Ur! No! You were supposed to live! You and Ultear and Gray were supposed to _live_!" Tears were rolling down his cheeks as he screamed and hit the ice which had once been Ur over and over again with his bare hands. "How can I ever surpass you if you're not alive?"

Ultear moved mechanically, grabbing Lyon by the shoulders and pulling him back before he hurt himself further. He slumped against her and sobbed.

"It's all my fault." Gray was still hunched over on the ground, staring at his knees. "If I- If I had just _listened_ to you- Why did I think I was strong enough to take on a _demon_?!"

Ultear shuffled close enough to grab ahold of Gray and drag him into the hug as well.

"If I had run into the masked people from the Bureau, I would have done the same thing," she murmured as he turned into the hug and clung to both her and Lyon. "It's not like you went looking for it – Deliora attacked us. Barely anyone who ran actually escaped. Mom-" Ultear's voice caught in her throat and she gulped. "Mom sacrificed herself to save us." Her eyes were burning. "It was her choice."

 _But I wish she hadn't._

No one voiced the words, but all three of them clung together all the tighter. And for the first time in two years, tears flowed freely down Ultear's face.

"What do we do now, 'Tear?" whispered Lyon. One of his hands was fisted in Ultear's shirt, the other in the collar of Gray's jacket.

"What do we do?" echoed Gray.

"We-" Ultear hesitated. "We head west."

Her mother had spoken of powerful wizards to the west who were much stronger than her. Maybe they could find one who would help them. Maybe her mother had been wrong, and there was a way to reverse the iced shell. She pulled Gray and Lyon a little closer to her.

 _Please, take care of your brothers for me._

Ultear had made a promise to her mother, and she would keep that promise even if it was the last thing she did.

* * *

 _A/N: Thanks for reading and your continued support!_


	5. A Sea of Stars

_Chapter 5: A Sea of Stars_

* * *

Bickslow had always been able to see souls to some extent. They glowed and glittered beneath people's skin like stars. It had taken years to realize that not everyone could see souls, or even that it was souls that he was seeing. He couldn't see much at first – just a gentle glow that meant a person was alive. More details had come as he got older.

He wasn't sure if he'd inherited the ability or not. Only the vaguest of memories of his parents remained. They'd died in a high wire accident when he was very young. All he really remembered was that they both glowed brightest when they were together.

The circus took care of their own. Bickslow certainly wasn't their first orphan. It wasn't an easy life, in fact it could be downright brutal at times, but the circus was a close-knit, if rather odd, family. Bickslow had always had fast reflexes and been tall for his age. By the time he was seven, he was part of the trapeze act and could fill in for the knife thrower when she was sick. He spent two years flying through the air above amazed crowds. Then everything had gone wrong.

There was an accident with the lion cages, and Nyal, the sword swallower's son, froze. His feet stuck to the ground, unable to flee the danger – get to safer ground. Then Bickslow caught his eye, the world tinted green, and Bickslow had _made him move_. Like a puppet. It was almost terrifyingly easy. There had been a lot of screaming and panicking after that. Especially since a navy blue stick man had appeared in the middle of his face like a brand, and nobody knew why. No one else in the circus had any magic. They'd put down all his talk of souls to a child's vivid imagination and that all circus folk were a little odd. They had no idea what to do.

Then men in official looking robes had arrived. They said that they were from the Bureau of Magical Development. They said that they specialized in helping children like Bickslow. They said that they could fix him. Bickslow hadn't understood why he needed to be fixed – he wasn't broken. He'd been sent away with the official looking men anyway.

As it turned out, they had said they would fix him, because they intended to break him first. Only, all they ever did was break him – they never got around to the fixing part. There were needles and scalpels and wires and the horrifying, disfigured face of a sun. His arms became a mutilated mass of scars. At some point his mind cracked but didn't quite shatter. When they had started, his figure eyes only ever activated when he wanted them to. By the time they were done, he could still activate them when he needed, but when he was tired or not concentrating or sometimes for no reason at all, the world would tint green against his will.

Sometimes he heard the voices of other children. He only ever caught a glimpse of another child once. She was on the small side with chin length black hair, and her cracking soul was tinged blue with ice magic. He didn't have time to get a better look before she was yanked around a corner, but he remembered her wide, scared eyes.

Children died. Bickslow knew because he saw their souls pass through the walls as they left. They didn't all leave. Five in particular took to following Bickslow when he was dragged out of his room and to floating above his bed when he slept. They had been dead long enough that they'd lost all semblance of human shape and merely looked like floating orbs. Bickslow talked to them when he was alone in his room, because the silence was, quite literally, driving him mad – the circus had been many things, but it had never been silent. Bickslow's mind was starting to go by that point, and he decided that the letter P was an excellent letter for naming souls with. They seemed to appreciate the way that popped his P's when he spoke. It made them glow a little brighter. Thus they were dubbed Pappa, Peppe, Pippi, Puppu, and Poppo. On the really bad nights, they would huddle over him, and it made him feel warmer. They were kind of like ducklings. Little baby soul ducklings.

It wasn't long after that that the masked people started to dose him with tranquilizers. They assumed he was talking to the walls.

And then it happened. One day the door opened, but it wasn't the usual people in masks. Bickslow stared at them. The only human face he'd seen since he'd arrived had been that little girl's. They had bright, clean souls, not all smudgy and dark like those of the masked people. What were they doing here? They didn't look very happy, but one of them was trying to smile.

"It's alright. You can come out. You're safe now. We're not going to hurt you."

Bickslow crept cautiously out of the room, keeping a wary eye on these strange, new adults. He'd learned his lesson. He wasn't about to trust them so easily. His soul babies followed him.

There were other children in the hallway, all wide-eyed and traumatized, but not as many as might be expected. Bickslow wasn't surprised. There had been a lot of souls leaving lately. He didn't see the girl with ice magic anywhere in the crowd. There were other unmasked adults in official robes. Some of them were comforting the children. Others were carrying stacks of files. Promises were made about help and finding parents and going home. Bickslow wasn't inclined to believe them. The first people had said they would help, too, and the circus wouldn't take him back now. The adults seemed to be giving him a wider birth than the other children.

He could hear them talking softly,

"Is that mark-?"

"Seith magic. With human souls."

"But I thought the Council had banned it."

"Can't stop the ones who are born with it. The mark would be crimson if it was secondary magic."

"What'll we do? He's just a kid."

"That's up to the Council to decide."

Bickslow was young and slightly crazy – not stupid. He knew they were talking about him. It looked like he wasn't safe with these people either, and he wasn't about to let himself be locked up in another prison. These people had kinder souls, but they weren't to be trusted.

All the children were piled into carts and told that it would be a two or three day ride to their destination. That night, once the carts had passed from desert into densely treed forest, Bickslow slipped out of the cart and away into the darkness. No one saw him go.

A note was made in the Magic Council's records to keep an eye out for a boy using natural seith magic – he could be dangerous.

* * *

Laxus was fifteen and being able to go on solo jobs was still kind of novel. He liked travelling by himself. Sometimes Freed and Evergreen came with him, but they were still a bit young to be doing jobs more than a day's travel from Magnolia, and Laxus preferred to travel on foot when he could get away with it. Trains had always made him feel rather ill. Besides, you got to see more of the world if you travelled a bit slower.

At the moment, Laxus was walking through the small village of Greenwillow and trying to decide if he was going to catch the train at the next town he got to. Unfortunately, he would probably have to. He'd promised that he would help with the setup for the Fantasia Parade this year. It usually took at least a week to get everything ready, and Mirajane had already sworn to murder him if he didn't make it back on time, and Ultear had said that she would help her. Individually, Laxus didn't think they'd have a hope in hell of taking him, but together? Well, he wasn't going to risk it this time. Those two were vicious and creative. Ugh, train it was.

Where the hell was everybody anyway? This place was practically deserted.

A terrified scream ripped through the air. Laxus's head shot up. That had sounded like it was coming from the center of the village. He started to run.

So that's where all the people had gone.

Laxus shouldered his way through the dense crowd. People were muttering quietly to each other, and the air all but oozed with tension.

"Did you hear what he did?"

" _Must_ be a demon."

"Maybe a Zeref worshipper?"

What the ever loving hell was going on here? He could hear someone crying – it sounded like the same person who had been screaming.

And then Laxus finally broke free of the crowd and gaped in horror.

At the center of the village square was a massive pile of wood and a stake. Tied to the stake was a boy in ragged clothing with shaggy blue hair. He was blindfolded and struggling. His right arm was wrapped in a crudely made splint. A locked wooden box also sat atop the wood pile by his feet. It bumped and jostled occasionally, seemingly of its own accord.

They were burning some poor kid at the stake?! Seriously? Had they completely lost their minds?! But there was a guy with a fire lacrima preparing to light the bonfire.

It took actual effort to hit the ground just in front of fire lacrima guy with the lightning bolt instead of just frying him with it. The man screamed and scrabbled back. Laxus could feel the electricity sparking off the spikes on his headphones.

"What is wrong with you people?!" he bellowed. For once, his voice didn't crack in the middle. Thank you, puberty. He actually sounded fairly impressive.

"Another demon?" one of the on-lookers moaned.

Laxus growled at the idiot. Some people were just _incredibly_ stupid.

"I'm not a demon – I'm a guild wizard from Fairy Tail!" He pulled up his shirt to show the black guild mark on his chest. Murmurs of surprise rippled through the crowd.

"He can get rid of the demon!" someone shouted.

"Please, help us!"

"Get rid of the demon!"

Demon? Laxus glanced at the blindfolded boy. Underfed, needed a bath, rags for clothes. Poor kid was probably an orphan with unusual magic. Definitely _not_ a demon. It was hard to believe backwards places like this still existed in Fiore. He couldn't let them kill the kid. Laxus thought fast and then drew himself up, doing his best to sound authoritative and knowledgeable,

"Everybody knows you can't kill demons with fire," he sneered. "You'd have just made it stronger." This was complete and utter bullshit, but the crowd seemed to be buying it. "Getting rid of a demon requires a powerful exorcism done by at least five S-class wizards." Laxus paused dramatically. Nobody was looking suspicious, yet. It would be easier if he could pull this off without any property damage.

"We'd never be able to afford something like that!" moaned a man, whose clothes implied that he was probably the mayor.

"Well…," Laxus put on a long suffering tone. "I suppose, since I'm already here, it's my civic duty to help you. Can't have demons running around the countryside. I guess I could take it back to the guild with me to be exorcised… free of charge. Just this once, you understand," Laxus grimaced as though the thought gave him pain.

"Oh, would you, please?" the probably mayor begged. "We'd be forever in your debt!"

Laxus let out a long sigh.

"I am on my way back. I might as well."

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!"

Laxus resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Some people were so damn gullible.

"I need everybody to go inside while I bind it and stay there until I've left the village. This could get dangerous."

"Of course! Of course! Anything you say!"

The quickly dispersing mob practically ran for the safety of their houses as Laxus awkwardly climbed up the woodpile. The boy had gone still and aimed a vicious kick in Laxus's direction.

"Hey, watch it!" he yelped. All the villagers were gone now. "Calm down – I'm trying to help you. I'm a wizard, too. Stay still so I can get that blindfold off."

The boy froze. He didn't even twitch as Laxus pulled the cloth away. Oh, no wonder the villagers had freaked out. That was one hell of a magical mark. Odd red eyes stared at Laxus suspiciously. Then they flared an eerie green. Laxus felt his entire body freeze up and begin to move of its own accord. The boy slammed his eyes shut, and the awful sensation stopped.

"Sorry! Sorry! It's a bad day, and they took my helmet!"

"Hey, it's okay. My magic would probably go haywire if some backwater lunatics tried to burn me at the stake, too." He carefully picked apart the knotted ropes around the boy's wrists. His arms were scarred up something awful, but the scars mostly looked old and faded.

"Probably could have gotten away if my arm wasn't broken. Can't shimmy a pole backwards with a broken arm. I tried. Didn't work. You're all zappy around the edges but extra glowy in the middle – I haven't seen that before." The boy paused as his wrists came free and opened his eyes. He experimentally twisted his left hand back and forth and then turned his attention to the twitching box that had been left next to him. Laxus noted that he was careful not to look him in the eye again. "Can you break locks?"

"Sure." Breaking things and acting as a lightning rod were kind of Laxus's specialties at the moment. He hit the padlock on the box with a small bolt of lightning, and it turned into metallic sludge. "You know, you're awfully trusting considering what just nearly happened to you."

"You're extra glowy in the middle," the boy shrugged as if that explained everything. He flipped open the lid of the box. Five crudely craved pieces of wood popped out like corks and hovered in the air. "Babies! You're okay!"

"Okay! Okay!" …chorused the pieces of wood.

Weird. But still not quite as weird as that time Natsu had decided to nap in the middle of the Fantasia bonfire.

The flying pieces of wood crowded around the boy's head as he pulled something else out of the box.

"Aw, man! They were going to burn my helmet?" He was holding an old Fiore military helmet – the kind with the slatted visor that hadn't been part of the uniform in years. This one was badly dented and had started to rust around the edges. Someone had obviously thrown it out. The boy plonked it on his head. "Pretty cool, huh?" The boy grinned, but it looked forced, "So, uh, thanks for the help, but I should probably get going before somebody realizes that you were lying."

"Have you got anywhere to go to?"

"Um," the boy hesitated, his shoulders tensing.

"Because if you don't, you could always come back to Fairy Tail with me."

"Fairy Tail? Is that a branch of the Council?"

Laxus actually burst out laughing.

"God, no! The Magic Council hates us! Fairy Tail is a wizard guild."

"My magic uses souls." Then the boy added quickly, "But only if they let me! The babies like me, or they wouldn't stick around! I wouldn't force them."

"There's a girl in our guild who can turn you into stone with a glance. Nobody'd be bothered. If you're really worried, I can put in a good word for you with the guild master." Laxus stuck out a hand. "I'm Laxus Dreyar, by the way."

The boy stared at the hand for a moment and then patted it.

"Bickslow."

"No last name?"

"Who needs a last name?"

There was the sound of a door opening.

"Hey! He's just letting the demon go!"

"Oh, hell," muttered Laxus.

And then Laxus and Bickslow were pelting down the street out of town, being chased by a mob of angry villagers. Some of them were waving pitchforks. Bickslow and his babies were laughing madly by the time they lost the villagers in the woods.

It took them another five days to make it back to Magnolia – because Bickslow flatly refused to go into any towns –, and it was evening by the time they were standing in front of the guild doors. Bickslow was trying to use Laxus as a shield.

"Are you sure it's going to be alright?" Bickslow asked, peering over Laxus's shoulder.

"Yup." He pushed open the massive double doors.

Bickslow made a soft noise of surprise, and Laxus heard him mumble,

"An entire ocean of starlight."

Yeah, it was definitely going to be alright.

* * *

 _A/N: From here on out, the updates are going to slow down - after all, I need to have some time to write new chapters! And speaking of new chapters, please feel free to ask questions and speculate - I might just end up writing a chapter based on or around something you ask or comment on! Also, there are only four pairings set in stone - the three listed in the story summary plus one other - so I am also open to what other side pairings people might like to see._

 _Thank you for reading! And also, thank you for your review, Singular Red! It really made my day, but the site seems to have eaten it, so I can't respond to you directly._


	6. The Boy in the Rafters

_Chapter 6: The Boy in the Rafters_

* * *

Lisanna knew she wasn't allowed on the second floor. She'd get into huge amounts of trouble if anyone noticed her, but, well, that was one of the advantages of still being small. People tended not to notice her. And if someone did notice her, she was definitely going to blame that terrible influence Natsu was supposedly having on her. She was curious.

Oh, not particularly about the second floor. That really was more of Natsu's thing. No, every time she had looked up for the past three days, Lisanna had be able to spot somebody crouched up in the rafters near the ceiling watching the wizards below. Most nine year olds probably would have been afraid, but Lisanna was not most nine year olds. Her older sister was Mirajane, and her best friend had freaked out the entire guild by deciding to take a nap literally in the middle of last year's Fantasia Festival bonfire. Somebody deciding they wanted to hide up in the rafters of the guildhall was more odd than anything else. Maybe the person was new and still shy? Lisanna could understand that. Fairy Tail was a pretty rowdy place if you weren't used to it.

Whatever the reason for the person's hiding Lisanna was curious and bored. Natsu and Happy had run off on another lead about Igneel after the master had specifically told them not to. They were going to get it when they got back. But until then, Lisanna had a mystery to solve.

She stole up the steps. Nobody noticed her go.

* * *

Bickslow liked the noise. It reminded him of the circus before the bad times. But down on the ground there were too many people too close. Too many souls. It was safer up here in the rafters. Nobody could sneak up on him. Nobody could hurt him. And he couldn't hurt anybody else.

Down below the souls of Fairy Tail's wizards twinkled like stars. It was harder to see them in detail this far away with his visor on, but that was the idea. He could still see more than he'd like to. Like that girl down there with the long, straight black hair who looked to be around his own age. She was telling off two boys, one with white hair who looked contrite and one with black hair who looked surly and was only wearing boxer shorts for some reason. All three of their souls had the pale blue sheen of ice magic, but hers was cracked and damaged from experimentation like Bickslow's, though not nearly as badly. Hers had less damage and showed signs of healing. His… did not. Maybe she had found the other end of her red string and that was what was helping her? Bickslow couldn't tell – it was impossible to make out people's red strings from all the way up here.

He tucked himself more firmly against the upright he'd been leaning on and absently cradled his broken arm against his chest. The pink haired woman had had to re-break it when she realized that it had already started to heal crooked. At least it was in a proper cast now instead of the best left-handed splint Bickslow had been able to make on the run. Once it was healed Laxus had promised that he could go on jobs with him and Freed and Evergreen. They were the first people Bickslow had ever met who hadn't either gone running or started reaching for the needles as soon as they learned what his seith magic could do. Which definitely made them nuts, but that was okay because Bickslow was fairly certain that according to the rest of the world his head wasn't screwed on quite right anymore either. Besides, they had interesting souls, and Bickslow thought that that was important. And he wanted to find out what was up with Freed's red string. Was it possible to have a one sided string?

There was a soft noise to Bickslow's left. He whipped his head around and… oh… _wow_. That had to be the most beautiful soul he had ever seen. It shone with rainbows and light like a cut diamond in a sunbeam. It _sparkled_. Bickslow had never been so badly tempted to reach out and touch.

"Hello?"

The small voice startled him, and Bickslow blinked a few times until he could see the person's body instead of just being dazzled by their soul. His control was usually better than that.

A small, pale girl with white hair was looking up at him. Her eyes were large and the clear blue of ice magic. She looked like a piece of a winter's day.

"Er… hi." Bickslow didn't do people. He used to – back in the circus – but in more recent years, not so much.

"I'm Lisanna," she told him. "What are you doing up in the rafters? Are you shy? I haven't seen you around here before."

"Uh," Bickslow hesitated. His babies, who had all been perched above him until now, were crowding behind his back, the cowards. "I'm Bickslow, and I'm new." He stuck out his tongue to show her his guild mark – he liked doing that. It meant that he belonged somewhere again. Subconsciously, he tugged down the cuffs of his long sleeves. Kid looked to be at least three or four years younger than him – wouldn't do to scare her off by letting her see his arms.

"Nice to meet you, Bickslow," Lisanna beamed at him.

"Nice to meet you, too." This was all kinds of awkward.

"Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you!" chorused his babies, popping out from behind his back, apparently over their previous nerves.

Lisanna startled and then just smiled and waved at them. Man, this kid had _definitely_ grown up in a wizard's guild. The wave, though, drew Bickslow's attention to her right hand. She had two red strings tied to her pinkie finger. She was one of the lucky people with a choice. The string closer to her fingertip was a bright, vibrant, healthy scarlet. That bond was already forming strong and true. The other was much paler, more potential than anything else. Maybe she hadn't met that person, yet. Bickslow felt the faintest of tugs on his left pinkie finger but ignored it.

"Why are you up here?"

Bickslow didn't say, 'Because Laxus and the others left on another job and they're the only ones around here I trust not to break out the pitch forks and torches once they find out what my magic can do.'

He settled instead on,

"It's quieter up here – not so crowded."

Lisanna nodded understandingly.

"It can be pretty overwhelming. Especially when the three o'clock bar fight star-"

"Lisanna?" The call drifted up from the hubbub below.

Lisanna's eyes widened guiltily and one small hand covered her mouth.

"Mira's looking for me! I've got to go! I'm not supposed to be up here," she confessed. She paused and gave him another smile. "I hope you come downstairs soon! I'm sure everyone would love to meet you!"

He gave her a hesitant smile in return.

"Maybe I will."

Lisanna's smile brightened, and then she darted away on silent feet.

Bickslow blinked. Had her second string just gotten… _brighter?_ It couldn't be….

He pushed his visor up to take a better look. Without his visor on Lisanna's soul blazed like the sun. He almost had to squint against the brightness. Now that he could see properly he could trace that second faint red string. Trace it all the way back to his left hand and the pale, solitary string tied there.

Numbly, he let his visor fall back into place.

He'd never actually thought he'd find the other end of his string, and he'd never imagined that there would be such a gorgeous soul on the other end. But… well…

In a way he was glad for that second, bright red string. A soul made of pure sunlight didn't deserve to be tied to a soul as broken as his. But maybe, someday, they could be friends. When she was a little older. Bickslow smiled to himself. He liked that idea.

* * *

 _A/N: Did I just bring a more complicated version of the red strings of fate into this? Why, yes. Yes, I did. #noregrets But more on that later._

 _This chapter is partially dedicated to the great and wonderful blanania, whose glorious artwork is a large part of how I ever ended up shipping these two. You haven't seen blanania's work? Take a minute and look them up on either DeviantArt or tumblr - all of their art is an absolute treat! (They draw the big four - not just Bixanna.)_

 _As always, thanks for reading!_


	7. Red Earmuffs

_Chapter 7: Red Earmuffs_

* * *

Ultear stretched and sighed. The job had gone well enough, and they now had enough money to cover this month's rent and then some. It should be a good day. But then Gray just had to go and get stuck in a jail cell for public indecency. Now Ultear and Lyon were scouring the small town for Gray's missing clothes (or at least his pants) so that they could be on their way. At this point, they'd already missed their train. Lyon had suggested that they just leave Gray behind because he was a moron, but Ultear had vetoed that plan. If she didn't find any sign of Gray's pants within the next fifteen minutes, though, Ultear was buying the frilliest, pinkest dress she could possibly find, and Gray would be wearing _that_ back to the guild. (Literally. She would frog march him back to the guildhall and make Reedus paint Gray's picture for posterity.)

Rosewood wasn't a big town, but it had a very busy, well-known market. People were packed together uncomfortably close as they bustled between the stalls. Ultear let out another sigh. This was exceptionally pointless. She was never going to find a stray pair of pants in all this mess. It had been much quieter when she and her brothers had passed through earlier. Hopefully Lyon was having better luck.

Ultear ducked out of the main crowd and into a side alley to catch her breath. She didn't like people she didn't know bumping into her – especially into her back. Most of her scars were on her back. She straightened her sleeves and considered her options.

Quiet sniffling caught Ultear's attention. She turned. The most adorable child Ultear had ever seen was curled up against the alley wall. She was tiny with short pink hair, a pleated blue skirt, and a button up sweater. She was also wearing the cutest pair of tiny red earmuffs. And she was crying, so picking her up, twirling her around, and telling her how precious she was probably wouldn't go over well. (Ultear really liked kids, okay? She didn't want to necessarily have any of her own, but she was so stealing any that Gray or Lyon ever managed to have.)

"What's wrong, sweetie?" she asked, crouching down so that she was on eye level with the child. The child eyed Ultear suspiciously still sniffing. "It's okay. You can trust me." Ultear pushed her sleeve back and turned her hand over so that the child could see the dark blue guild crest on the inside of her right wrist. "My name is Ultear, and I'm a guild wizard from Fairy Tail. What's your name?"

The little girl reached out and grasped Ultear's arm so that she could get a better look. Finally she answer,

"M-Meredy."

"That's a beautiful name. So, can you tell me why you're upset, Meredy?" Instead of saying anything, Meredy began to cry again in earnest. Blast, time for a distraction. "Want to see something neat?" Ultear placed her right fist on top of her left palm and pictured what she wanted to create. When she opened her fist, two small rose blossoms were sitting on her palm. "Here," Ultear picked up one of the roses and handed it to Meredy, "This one's for you." Meredy accepted the rose with wide eyes. Her tears were finally beginning to slow. "Now watch this." Ultear concentrated on the remaining rose in her hand. A twist of time magic caused it to burst into a puff of steam. Time magic was difficult and not something Ultear was too adept with. She mostly used it for pranks on Gray and Lyon. It, like her scars, was simply another reminder of her time at the Bureau.

Meredy let out an appreciative gasp and her eyes widened. She had finally stopped crying.

"How did you do that?"

"Magic." Ultear winked. "Like I said, I'm a wizard."

"Can you use magic to help me find my mommy?"

Ultear paused, her smile slipping slightly for a moment. She tried to ignore the way that question made her heart ache. She forced her smile back into place.

"Well, my magic may not be much help with that, but I can definitely help you find your mother. What does she look like? Does she have pretty pink hair like you?"

"No, Mommy's hair is brown. _Daddy's_ hair is pink," Meredy stated authoritatively, then her face crumpled again. "I promised that I wouldn't wander off while she was buying vegetables, but…."

"It's okay," Ultear reassured her before the waterworks could start again. "We'll find her. I'm sure she's looking for you right now." She caught ahold of Meredy's hand and pulled her to her feet. Just as she was about to shoulder her way back into the throng, a small ice sparrow flitted down and landed on her shoulder. Oh, good – Lyon had found Gray's clothes. Ultear lifted on hand into the air and shot a burst of ice crystals into the sky like a flare. If Lyon's ice sparrow had been able to find her, he must be close by.

"Why did you do that?" asked Meredy.

"I'm letting my brother know where I am. If we wait a few minutes, he'll join us, and he can help look for your mother."

Lyon, being the soul of efficiency that he was, took less than ten minutes to find them. Ultear kept Meredy entertained but making a variety of different ice flowers. She'd just finished a daisy when Lyon arrived at the entrance of the alley carrying Gray's pants. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Meredy.

"Please don't tell me that you stole her."

Ultear rolled her eyes.

"Nice to see you, too, Lyon. Glad you found Gray's pants."

Lyon wrinkled his nose at the mention of the pants.

"They were in the town square. This time I'm making him pay a finder's fee to get them back."

"Sounds like a plan. This is Meredy. She got separated from her mother in the market, and we're going to help Meredy find her again. Meredy, this idiot is my younger brother, Lyon."

"He's your brother?" Meredy asked. "You don't look anything alike."

Ultear and Lyon exchanged a grin. They heard that a lot. People could accepted Ultear and _Gray_ being related but not Lyon.

"I'm adopted," Lyon informed her and then stuck out a hand with a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Meredy. How about you ride on my shoulders, so that you can see better over all the people in the market. After all, you're the most familiar with what your mother looks like."

"Okay." Ultear wished that Reedus was there to paint a picture, because the adorable was just compounding with interest. "Are you a wizard, too?" Meredy asked. Her tiny hands were fisted in Lyon's hair.

"Yes, I'm an ice wizard like Ultear."

"She made me pretty flowers."

"She is an expert at making pretty flowers," Lyon agreed as they headed back out into the market.

If it wasn't for her supposed ethics and moral code and the fact that somewhere out there a mother was most likely frantically searching for her daughter, Ultear would so be stealing this child.

The market was still quite crowded, but up on Lyon's shoulders, Meredy had a much better view. There was also a good chance that Meredy's mother might spot her missing child bobbing above the heads of the throng.

"Do you remember what your mother was wearing today?" Ultear called up to Meredy. The little girl's face scrunched up in thought.

"A big blue overcoat," she finally declared.

"So we're looking for a frantic brunette in a blue overcoat," Ultear informed Lyon. He nodded. They spent fifteen minutes weaving down the street scanning the mass of people. The market just seemed to be getting more crowded. Ultear was starting to get concerned. Rosewood wasn't a big place.

"MOMMY!" Meredy abruptly screeched, letting go of Lyon's hair to wave her hands frantically. Lyon had to grab her knees to keep her from toppling off his shoulders.

"Meredy? MEREDY!" A woman with brunette hair pulled back into a bun was shouldering and elbowing her way viciously through the crowd towards them. Her obviously once neat hair was falling out in stressed tendrils around her face. Lyon shuffled into a less crowded eddy by a market stall and knelt to let Meredy down. The woman snatched her up as soon as her feet touched the ground and hugged her. "You scared me!"

"I'm sorry. But I found wizards!"

The woman blinked and set Meredy back on her feet.

"You what?"

"We're guild wizards from Fairy Tail," Ultear explained, showing the woman her guild mark. Lyon pulled down the collar of his shirt to show his as well. "I'm Ultear Milkovich, and this is Lyon Vastia. I ran across your daughter in a side alley."

The woman's shoulders sagged slightly.

"Thank you so much for finding her. I've been looking all over for her."

"Your welcome."

"What do you say to the nice wizards, Meredy?"

Meredy paused as if trying to remember just what it was that you were supposed to say. Finally she came up with,

"Can I be a wizard when I grow up?"

"Meredy!"

Lyon covered his mouth with one hand to conceal a grin. Ultear made no such attempts. She crouched down in front of Meredy.

"If you have magic and you want to learn, you can become a wizard," she told her.

Meredy beamed.

Her mother leaned down and whispered,

"You're supposed to say, 'thank you.'"

"Oh. Thank you!" Meredy waved one small hand at Ultear and Lyon and then allowed her mother to lead her away back into the crowd. As she disappeared, Ultear could just hear Meredy telling her mother how she was going to grow an entire ice garden.

Lyon crossed his arms and sighed.

"Damn it."

Ultear raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?"

"That kid was far too adorable. Now I want one."

"I thought you said that you never wanted to have kids, because you have no paternal instincts."

Lyon's mouth twisted to one side.

"Apparently, I was wrong."

Ultear bounced on her toes slightly.

"Excellent. Now I just need to get you married off, so that I can become an aunt."

Lyon threw Gray's pants at her face. Ultear caught them with ease before they could smack her in the head. She wasn't really paying attention, though – she had nefarious plotting to do.

* * *

 _A/N: Thanks for reading!_


	8. Welcome to the Madhouse

_Chapter 8: Welcome to the Madhouse_

* * *

Lucy was beyond thrilled. And kind of terrified. She was officially a member of _Fairy Tail_. Just like she had always dreamed. She had the pink guild mark on the back of her hand to prove it! It was just… well…

These people were nuts.

She probably should have expected it after all the articles she had read in Sorcerer Weekly but still. It was kind of overwhelming in person. Natsu had basically walked in the door and started a brawl. What the hell had she signed up for? There was a woman drinking alcohol directly out of the barrel. A white haired fellow yelling about manliness. Loke, whom she had read about, had an entire posse of women following him and had promptly run away the instant he had realized she was a celestial wizard. And Master Makarov could apparently turn into a giant shadow demon thing _at will_. Yikes. But it was also kind of exciting. That was one hell of a motivational speech that the master had given.

Now that the brawl was over various members were helping to pick up the pieces of the broken tables. Lucy wandered over to the bar and sat down, still admiring her guild mark.

"So I hear you're new."

Lucy startled slightly and looked to her left. Another mage was sitting on the stool next to her. He had tanned skin, spiky coffee hair, and for some reason slightly pointed ears. He looked to be around Lucy's age. A pair of headphones hung around his neck, and he wore a long white coat. His expression was calm as he extended one hand toward her.

"Uh, yeah. I'm Lucy." She shook his hand hesitantly. He was kind of cute.

"Erik Zmeya. Nice to meet you." He gave her a small smile and released her hand. "And this is Cubelios."

Lucy blinked.

"Huh?" Why was he gesturing at the floor? Then she looked down. "OH MY GOD!" she shrieked as a _giant purple snake_ lifted its head and flickered its tongue at her. Erik winced at the volume of her scream. The snake rose up to shoulder height, and Erik scratched it under its chin. It had wings.

"Don't worry – she'd never bite another guild member."

Lucy's eye twitched. Definitely crossing him off the potential boyfriend list.

"Oh… good…," she finally managed to respond weakly. It was weird. Erik was the only guy she'd ever met, aside from Natsu, whose eyes never once drifted down to her cleavage while talking to her. Maybe they were both broken. Or being in a guild with so many busty women had managed to completely desensitize them.

Erik extended one hand to catch Mirajane's attention.

"One belladonna neat and another rat for Cubelios, please." The snake hissed softly, and Erik grinned. "Make that two rats."

"Coming right up!"

Lucy watched in morbid fascination as Erik patted Cubelios's head. Cubelios unfurled her wings slightly – just enough that Lucy could make out the pale lavender guild mark on the webbing of the right one.

Wait. Hold on a sec….

"Belladonna? You're drinking _poison_?!"

Erik blinked at her.

"Well, yeah…."

Before Lucy could sputter out any sort of response to this, the guild doors burst open and three new wizards entered – a woman and two young men.

"WE'RE BACK! And look who we found on our way home!" The woman had long straight black hair that came down to her waist and wore a short, royal blue yukata over dark leggings. The two young men looked to be about the same age, one with black hair, the other with white. Between the two young men was draped a fourth person – a man with slicked back navy hair. He looked fairly injured.

"DAD!" A small boy went sprinting across the guildhall with tears in his eyes.

"Hey, Romeo," the man gave his son a bruised grin as he was lowered onto a chair. "Sorry, I'm late getting home."

The woman gave the back of his head a light smack,

"Next time you need to deal with more than nineteen Vulcans take someone else with you."

The man just nodded, too busy hugging his son to respond.

"Aw, man," the black haired young man put his hands on his hips, surveying the wreckage from the earlier fight. "Did we miss the three o'clock bar brawl?"

The white haired young man rolled his eyes,

"We wouldn't have if we hadn't had to go back to look for your pants. _Twice_."

"And speaking of your pants," added the woman, "put them back on, Gray."

"What the-? Aw, damn it!"

Lucy gaped. She could have sworn Gray was fully dressed when he walked in the door.

"Who are they?" she asked, turning back to Erik, and cringed.

He was busy feeding Cubelios a rat. Whole.

 _Gross._

"Hmm? Oh, that's the Ice Djinn Trio. Ultear Milkovich is the team leader. And then that's Gray Fullbuster with the black hair and Lyon Vastia with the white. They're all ice maker wizards." Erik took a sip of his sickly green drink and hummed contentedly to himself. "Lyon's generally pretty quiet."

Lucy wasn't sure why that seemed to be particularly important to Erik but okay. She had heard of Ultear Milkovich. Man, there were a lot of well-known wizards in Fairy Tail.

"Hey, hey! Lousy!"

Lucy scowled at Natsu, but before she could correct him Erik beat her to it.

"She said her name was _Lucy_ , you flame-brained moron. You never listen."

"I do so listen, you pointy-eared bastard! At least I don't claim that a flying snake is a _dragon_!"

"CUBELIOS IS SO A DRAGON!" And Erik leapt off his stool, fingers curled like claws and aiming for Natsu's throat.

Cue the second bar brawl within less than an hour of Lucy's arrival.

Less than an hour after that, Lucy was getting ready to leave on her first ever job as a full-fledged guild wizard along with Natsu and Happy. Something about a book.

Well, she could say one thing for certain – things were definitely never going to be dull around this guild. And that was just fine by her.

* * *

 _A/N: Still taking votes for any other pairings people would like to see aside from those listed in the summary! And thank you to all my guest reviewers! You guys are awesome!_

 _Erik's last name, "Zmeya," is the Russian word for 'snake.'_

 _Thanks for reading!_


	9. Scapegoat

_Chapter 9: Scapegoat_

* * *

"It isn't fair! We have to go rescue Jellal!"

"No, we do _not_." Erza had a firm grip on the back of Natsu's neck.

"But it's not his fault! And we saved all the guild masters! They shouldn't be throwing him in jail!"

"We left a gaping crater where a building used to be," Erza seemed to be getting progressively more annoyed.

"Yeah, but we were stopping a giant demon thing!"

"That's not the _point_."

The argument didn't show any signs of slowing down unless Erza tired of arguing and simply eviscerated Natsu. Lucy honestly wasn't sure if that was something she would actually do.

Lucy still couldn't believe that she'd actually been involved in a battle with a dark guild. Erza had asked Natsu to assist her and Jellal since Simon was sick. Why Natsu had gotten it into his head that Lucy needed to come, too, she would probably never know. Erza had thoroughly approved of the idea, though, and you didn't say no to Erza. She had hoped that Jellal would be the voice of reason, but there was no help there. It had been absolutely terrifying… and a little bit amazing. Lucy had never felt as alive as when the adrenaline had been singing through her veins. Together they'd managed to save the guild masters! (Though, next time she was involved in a major battle, Lucy hoped that she'd be able to get through it with a little less screaming.)

Then representatives from the Magic Council had shown up and arrested Jellal.

Lucy rolled the glass of fruit juice she had been drinking back and forth between her hands.

"Aren't you worried about Jellal?" Lucy asked Simon. They were sitting next to each other at the bar. Simon seemed to be keeping an eye on Erza. His face was still a little drawn and pale, but he looked much better than he had when Lucy and the others left.

"Well, I'm not happy about it, but he'll be alright," Simon assured her. "The Council just wants to make an example of someone. They'll probably just give him a slap on the wrist and send him home. If they try to do anything more than that, we'll appeal it."

Lucy was impressed how calm he was being about this.

"But I thought Erza was your team leader. If someone had to be made an example of, shouldn't it be her? I mean, not that I want Erza to get in trouble, but it doesn't make sense."

"In practice, Erza is in charge, but on paper, we have Jellal listed as the team leader." Mirajane set a fresh cup of tulsi tea in front of Simon, and he offered her a smile. "Thank you."

"Why would you do that?" Lucy asked, perplexed.

Simon took a sip of his tea.

"Out of the three of us, Jellal has the best social skills and is best at playing the Council's political games. Erza is a little too inclined to deal with all situations by stabbing something, and I have the patience for the politics but not the skill. After the third time that Jellal managed to talk us out of getting thrown in jail, we named him our diplomat." Simon took another sip of tea. "Erza can do the proper kowtowing when she chooses to. She just generally doesn't choose to." His mouth pulled up into a small smile.

Erza chose that moment to finally punch Natsu in the solar plexus, laying him out flat and unconscious on the floor.

"Somebody sit on him to make sure that he doesn't go anywhere when he wakes up," she ordered.

"Want me to just freeze him?" offered Ultear. The Ice Djinn Trio had only gotten back to the guild a few hours ago. Erza considered this for a moment and then nodded firmly. A few seconds later Natsu was frozen up to his neck in a giant block of ice shaped like rosebud.

Erza wandered over to the bar, sat down on Simon's opposite side, and leaned against his shoulder. He patted her back.

"I think Erza needs some chocolate cake, Mira."

"Coming right up!"

"Why couldn't they have arrested all of us?" Erza grumbled.

"Because you scare them," Simon stated without even a moment's hesitation.

"I want Jellal back."

"We'll get him back in a few days. Eat your cake."

"So what do you think so far?" Lucy jumped slightly as Levy sat down next to her. They hadn't had too much time to talk, yet, but Lucy had already decided that she liked Levy a lot.

"What do I think of what?"

"Guild life, silly," Levy winked. "Have we managed to scare you off, yet?"

"No! It's even better than I imagined. Though… does the Council come and arrest people from Fairy Tail very often?"

"Oh, no," Levy waved a hand. "Usually they just send the master a bunch of angry paperwork. Though, if they are going to arrest anybody, it tends to be Jellal. I'm not really sure why. They also send me recruitment brochures every once in a while."

"Really?" Before Lucy could ask more, Natsu woke up and began shouting again. This time Ultear took a shot at talking some sense into him.

"Shut up, Natsu, before I permanently freeze you to the side of a train." That got his attention. His mouth snapped shut. "Jellal will be fine as long as we don't interfere. Remember when he got that arson charge against you dropped? This is like that."

"Oh! So Jellal is playing the Council for suckers again!" Natsu brightened up. "Why didn't you just say so? He's good at that!"

Ultear rolled her eyes and released him from the block of ice.

"Not really, but close enough."

As soon as Natsu was free, Gray hit him in the face with a blast of ice magic.

"What the hell was that for, frostbite?!"

"For being such a freaking moron, flame-brain!"

Gray ducked Natsu's responding ball of fire which hit Elfman instead. It was sort of like watching dominoes fall. In less than a minute, the guild's solemn air had been replaced by a bar brawl. Lucy glanced up at the clock. Well, it was almost three o'clock. The brawl was pretty much right on time.

Simon casually deflected a flying stool that would have sent Erza pitching face-first into her slice of cake.

Lucy smiled as the tension slowly leaked out of the air. Next to her, Levy sent a solid script WATER flying into the confusion. Fairy Tail really was her kind of crazy.

* * *

 _A/N: Am I going to skip over all arcs like this? No, more detail will come later. It's all based on what the author is actually interested in writing about.  
_

 _Thank you for your review on the last chapter, guest!_


	10. As Water Flows to the Sea

_Chapter 10: As Water Flows to the Sea_

* * *

Ultear sat near the edge of the cliff and trailed her fingers in the wide stream of water as it flowed by her and down to the ocean below. The water that used to be her mother's body. She wanted to be angry. Angry at the idiots who had followed a man blinded by power and a need for revenge on the demon who ruined his life. But it was too easy to imagine Lyon or Gray in his place with just one small twist of fate. Gray, as he'd been when she'd first met him, would have done the exact same thing. Ultear wondered what she would have done if things had gone differently, if she'd blamed Gray and Lyon for her mother's death, if she'd held onto the anger and rage deep inside her until it rotted out her heart. It didn't bear dwelling on.

Lyon sat down next to her, and trailed his fingers in the water as well.

"Would you judge me too harshly if I were to say that I wanted to lie down in this water so that I can pretend that I'm getting one last hug from Master Ur before she's gone?" he asked, not looking directly at her.

Ultear's lips pulled up in a wan half-smile.

"No."

"Good, because I was planning on doing it anyway." Lyon pulled off his shirt and pants, and lay down in the water. It wasn't quite deep enough to cover his face. He closed his eyes and let out a quiet sigh.

"I'm not sure whether I should be disturbed or jealous that I didn't think of that first." Gray crouched down on the opposite side of the stream, eyeing Lyon thoughtfully. He was moving stiffly and a massive bruise was starting to spread across his ribs.

"I'm glad to see that you managed to keep track of your pants for an entire battle," Ultear commented. "Where's your shirt?"

"No idea." Ultear rolled her eyes. Typical. "I think-" Gray hesitated and then continued, "I think Ur would have liked this. Becoming a part of the ocean."

Ultear rested her chin on one knee and watched the water rippled between her spread fingers.

"Yeah."

They were quiet for a long moment.

"What are we going to do about the villagers? You said stopping Deliora wouldn't fix them."

"No. I have an idea, but it will probably take all three of us-"

Lyon abruptly sat up, splashing water everywhere. His eyes were wide, and tears were gathering in the corners.

"Damn it, Lyon-!"

"Get in here," Lyon demanded. He sounded shaken.

"What are you-?!"

"Just do it!" He grabbed both of them by the arm and dragged them into the water with him.

"Aw, come on!" Gray yelped. "I'm actually _dressed_ for once! And now I'm _sitting_ in Master Ur! That's creepy."

"Lie down and close your eyes!" Lyon ordered, glaring at Gray. "I'll sit on you to make you do it if I have to."

"Fine, fine." Gray complied.

Lyon turned his attention to Ultear.

"Please, just trust me, 'Tear. I know it's not just me imagining things."

"Alright." She was already wet, so she might as well. Besides, Lyon looked so earnest – it was an expression that was hard to disappoint.

Ultear lay down in the freezing ice melt and closed her eyes. Her hair streamed out around her as the water tugged gently at her clothes. It was a little like an embrace. For a few moments, Ultear simply lay still wondering what Lyon had gotten so worked up about. Then she heard it, soft, like a whisper in her ear,

 _I'll always love you with all my heart, Ultear._

And then the memories flooded over her, but they weren't _her_ memories. They were her _mother's_. A thousand little moments, a thousand joys, a single bright tear shed for the birth of a daughter.

 _My little Ultear. My little miracle._

She saw her mother begging for her dead daughter's body to be returned, felt her anguish at her loss. Saw her sobbing with relief as she clung to her daughter returned from the dead like a miracle. A _miracle_. And that's what every moment after that was – _a miracle_. More than she could have ever asked for or dreamed of.

Memories crowded and washed over Ultear like the water flowing around her. She saw herself, so much younger, practicing her ice magic, befriending Lyon and Gray, playing pranks on the boys, sleeping sprawled with her arm across Gray's face, dancing to a fiddler's tune in the marketplace.

And through it all was an overwhelming feeling of _love_.

 _I'll always love you._

Ultear sat up slowly as the last of the water trickled away around her. Tears were running freely down her face.

"She was right. All this time she was right. She really is still alive." Ultear threw her head back and laughed and sobbed at the same time.

After a while, the laughter slowed and the tears subsided. Gray and Lyon were sitting up as well, their hair plastered to their heads. Both of them had red-rimmed eyes. Gray was wiping at his face, but Lyon didn't seem to care about the tear tracks streaking his cheeks. Lyon leaned against Ultear's right shoulder. Gray shuffled forward so that he was sitting to her left. They all stared out at the sea.

"So now she's the ocean." Lyon sounded oddly content. "I knew training with her was the right choice. What other wizard could become an entire ocean?" There was a nostalgic grin on his face. Gray reached across and gave him a shove, but there was no real force behind it.

Ultear smiled and pushed a damp tendril of hair behind her ear. Then she started to giggle wetly.

"My mother's an ocean!" It wasn't funny, per say, but for the moment, she couldn't cry anymore. It was better this way.

Deliora was gone, finally gone, and her mother may not have been with them, but she really was still alive. Ur had kept them safe for nearly ten years. In a way, it was a miracle. One more miracle to give back and share with the world.


	11. A Golden Key

_Chapter 11: A Golden Key_

* * *

"So, Lucy."

Lucy looked up cautiously. That was not a promising conversational opener. It usually meant that somebody wanted her to do something. Generally something that she wouldn't enjoy. This was how Natsu had started his pitch for the last job they had gone on together. Lucy had ended up being eaten by a giant fish. _A giant fish_. Aquarius had been deeply unimpressed when Lucy had managed to summon her. Actually, the only one who had been happy about the situation was Happy. Go figure.

Lyon, Ultear and Gray were all sitting across from her. Lyon had his hands steepled in front of him in that way that always made Lucy think of a master criminal or supervillain. He was the one who had spoken. She didn't like the way they were looking at her.

"Yeees…?" Lucy fidgeted with the edge of her magazine. She was getting a bad feeling about this already.

"On our last job, part of our payment was a gate key…."

Lucy's shoulders relaxed. Oh, good – they just wanted to talk shop. She was, after all, Fairy Tail's only celestial wizard.

"Oh, well, if you want to sell it, the local magic shop will probably give you about seventy-five percent of the market value for it. It depends on the constellation for how much it's worth. Silver keys are fairly hot commodities at the moment, so you might be able to sell it without the middle man if you put up a notice." Lucy cut herself off, hoping she hadn't sounded too business savvy. Nobody knew that she was technically heir to the Heartfilia fortune. She didn't want her years of business lessons to somehow give her away. But then again, she was a celestial wizard – knowing all that shouldn't seem too out of place.

"I don't know about selling it." Ultear's expression was calculating in a worrying way. "I was thinking of perhaps more of a trade."

"A trade?" That didn't sound like the best use of a gate key.

"Yeah, a trade. With you."

Lucy was starting to get suspicious again.

"I've already got plenty of silver keys."

"Whoever said it was silver?" And suddenly Lyon was holding a golden zodiac key between his fingers like a card trick.

They had gotten their hands on Sagittarius's gate key. Lucy wanted to make grabby hands at it and possibly swoon, but she firmly squashed the urge. Well, mostly squashed the urge. Her fingers were still making small, spasming motions in the zodiac key's direction. And she might have dropped her magazine and half-lunged across the table.

"How did you get your hands on a _zodiac key?!_ "

"We went on an S-class job," Gray shrugged as if being awarded golden gate keys was no big deal. Lucy might have whimpered a bit, but then she pulled herself together.

"What kind of trade did you have in mind?"

"We need somebody to run a distraction for our next job – something flashy that'll impress civilians. Instead of cutting you in on the reward, we'll give you the zodiac key." Lyon was doing his evil mastermind face again. Actually, all three of them were doing variations on the evil mastermind face. It was disturbing.

"What's the catch?"

"We're just going to be taking out a gang while you keep their boss and his daughter entertained. He's having a big dinner party and hiring entertainers. We don't want to tip them off by using ice magic in front of them – we're too well known." When Ultear said it like that, it sounded safe and logical, but Lucy was beginning to understand that those two words almost never applied to wizarding jobs.

"You know me and Natsu are a team, right?" Gray's face scrunched up at the mention of Natsu. "Where I go, Natsu and Happy generally end up following."

"You two have worked with Erza, Jellal, and Simon before," Lyon pointed out, "and Natsu is very distracting."

"Yeah, burning buildings are pretty distracting," grumbled Gray. Ultear elbowed him, and he shut up.

"You two can split the entertainers' fee," Ultear offered. "It's being paid up front."

"I don't know," Lucy hedged.

Lyon twirled Sagittarius's gate key between his fingers. It glinted very distractingly in the light.

"How much do you think we could sell this for?" he asked Ultear casually. "A couple of hundred thousand jewel?"

"It's one of only twelve in the entire world. With the right celestial wizard, I think we could name any price we like."

"You're right," Gray agreed. "We might not have to worry about rent for _years_. Though it's kind of a shame to see it leave the guil-"

"I'll do it!" It took Lucy a second to realize that that really had been her voice that had practically shouted that. Oh, hell. Well, too late to back out now. "I'll do it," she repeated more calmly.

"Excellent," Ultear beamed. "We're catching the 8am train tomorrow morning. Don't be late!"

"We'll give you the key after the job is complete," Lyon assured her, standing up. The golden key had vanished from his hands.

Lucy let her head fall to the table as they left. What was she getting herself into this time? And how was she going to convince Natsu to work with Gray? Those two fought almost every chance they got. But on the plus side – golden zodiac key. Acquiring yet another of the zodiac so soon after Virgo? That was insanely lucky.

"I'm surprised you said yes."

Lucy lifted her head. Erik had sat down across from her. He had one of his usual suspicious green drinks in his hand, and Cubelios was resting her chin on his shoulder.

"They're giving me a zodiac key."

"Mmm, but the boss of the gang they're taking out is Juan Rancho, and he's a notorious perv. Then again, you do have Virgo," he mused. "He'd probably like her."

Lucy let her head drop back to the table again.

Damn it.

"What kind of perv?" she asked half-heartedly. She didn't really want to know, but it was better to be prepared. And if you wanted more information, Erik was generally the best person to ask.

"Whips, chains, and kinky cosplay, from what I hear."

Lucy thunked her head against the table a couple of times.

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

Why did this always happen to her?

* * *

 _A/N: My week has been kinda crazy, so I think I thanked everyone who review the last chapter, but I'm not sure! Just in case I missed someone - thank you all again so much! Reviews and feedback always mean a lot to me, and I am always grateful for every review and PM I receive!_


	12. Phantom War

_Chapter 12: Phantom War_

* * *

Erza finally collapsed, unconscious. Watching her fly through the air and hit the ground like a ragdoll had shredded Jellal's heart. He desperately wanted to find Master Jose and rip him into little tiny pieces for everything that was happening, but he couldn't focus on that right now. Somebody in the guild had to maintain a cool and level head. They only had fifteen minutes before the Jupiter Cannon fired again.

Natsu was already running forward with Happy, intent on smashing Jupiter to smithereens. Elfman, Gray, Lyon, and Ultear were hot on his heels, but Jellal caught Ultear by the sleeve, holding her back.

"I need you to stay here."

"Hell no!" she snapped.

"Ultear, listen to me! We are the only two wizards left in Fairy Tail who even have a _hope_ in hell of stopping a second Jupiter blast if we work together. If Natsu and the others don't break that thing in time, we are the guild's _last line of defense_." Jellal wanted nothing more than to run after Natsu and break things and hit people but that wasn't where he could do the most good right now.

"Hold the front lines with us," Cana agreed, fanning out her cards in one hand. "It looks like we're about to get company anyway."

Strange, flying, wraith-like creatures were now pouring from the upper levels of Phantom Lord's guildhall. Ultear's shoulders sagged.

"Fine." She waved Gray and Lyon on. "Stay safe, or I'll kill you both!" she shouted after them.

Then the shades descended on them like a plague.

* * *

Simon felt… lost. Erza had taken a direct hit from the Jupiter Cannon. As for Jellal, Master Jose's shadow phantoms had apparently taken offense to his heavenly body magic. They had ganged up on him and swarmed. Jellal had held his own until one had gotten lucky and brushed his arm, making him lose his stride. That was all the opening they had needed. At least five had made contact – possibly more. Now Jellal was lying unconscious next to Erza, pale as death, cold as ice, and barely breathing.

It wasn't that the three of them hadn't been separated before. It was just that usually only one of them was incapacitated at a time. Even then it was rare. Simon was a strong wizard in his own right, but Erza and Jellal were two of Fairy Tail's _powerhouses._ They'd both made S-class already for a reason. To see both of them taken down in such quick succession was horrifying.

First the master, then Erza, now Jellal. Mystogan couldn't be reached. Laxus was being an ass yet again. Shadow Gear had been beaten within an inch of their lives. Lucy had been kidnapped. Their guildhall was full of holes and would soon be vaporized if Natsu and the others didn't manage to stop the Jupiter Cannon from firing again. With Jellal down, Simon didn't think that Ultear would be able to stop a blast by herself. (Erza had them both beat on brute magical strength.)

It would all feel slightly less hopeless if the freaking phantoms would _stop regenerating_. Also, it would help if fighting shade magic with shadow magic wasn't pretty much an exercise in futility.

Simon resisted the urge to grind his teeth together, because he _knew_ it wouldn't help.

Next to him, Erik suddenly stiffened and swore.

"What is it?" Simon asked, ducking a phantom.

"Lucy, Reedus, and Loke are in trouble. I can hear it. Come on, Cubelios." He turned and started to run back towards Magnolia. Cubelios took to the air, and Erik leapt onto her back.

* * *

Sometimes Erik thought that it would have been so much easier if he had just abandoned his morals and his conscience and joined a dark guild. Poison dragon slayer magic was great… if you didn't mind the fact that it was really easy to kill innocent bystanders if you weren't paying attention. Erik could regulate the amount of poison he put out so that he incapacitated instead of killed. The problem was that he didn't want to incapacitate his fellow Fairy Tail wizards.

On the plus side, Gajeel Redfox was _loud_. Not as loud as Natsu, but Erik could hear his muscles telegraphing his moves. He was incredibly easy to dodge. If Gajeel actually managed to land a hit, Erik was dead, but as long as he remained just out of reach he could win this.

Gajeel was getting progressively more pissed off. Erik was dodging blows by fractions of an inch. It made it look like Gajeel kept missing. They were at something of a stalemate at the moment, because Gajeel couldn't hit Erik, and Erik's poison attacks couldn't break through Gajeel's iron scales. He didn't dare use something that Gajeel could breathe in for fear of harming Lucy, Reedus, or Loke.

"Stop dodging, you fucking fairy!" Gajeel swore as Erik danced out of the way once more.

"I can hear you," Erik smirked. The angrier your opponent got, the sloppier they became. He just had to wait for the right moment-

A millisecond too late, Erik realized that he shouldn't have said that, because Gajeel _wasn't_ the only Phantom Lord wizard in the room. He caught the edge of a thought-

 _If he can't hear-_

Erik dodged another blow from Gajeel, reached for his noise cancelling headphones-

Too late.

The focused wall of noise hit Erik head on. It was agony beyond words to the point where he didn't even feel Gajeel's hardened iron fist slam into his chest. Blood was running down his neck. His eardrums had ruptured. He collapsed to the ground as Gajeel rained more pain down on him.

Cubelios dropped down from the roof and attempted to crush the wizard who was using sound magic, but the female Phantom wizard caught her in a mirror prison.

The world was so… silent. Gajeel appeared to be yelling at the two wizards with him. He punched the sound wizard in the face, snapping his glasses in half. Gajeel hitched Lucy under his arm and disappeared through the hole in the roof.

Damn it.

Erik finally lost consciousness.

* * *

Jellal woke slowly. His head ached. Actually, his entire body ached, and there was a lingering chill in his bones. His stomach roiled with nausea. It was worse than that hangover he'd had after that time someone had spiked his drink on a job. (Erza had dealt very efficiently with the offender, and Simon had apparently prevented Jellal from actually dancing on any tables – bless them both.) He slowly peeled back one eyelid and then the other. A white ceiling stared back at him. Familiar sounds started to filter into his ears. Hospital sounds.

Well, hopefully the mere fact that he was a) waking up at all and b) doing so in a hospital meant that Phantom Lord had ultimately failed.

"Jellal?" Simon's voice was soft.

"Hey Simon," Jellal groaned, turning his head. "What did I miss? Is everyone alright?"

"Well, the guild hall is a pile of rubble, and the Magic Council is having everybody thoroughly interrogated, but nobody died. Everyone who was injured is expected to make a full recovery, and this time the Council _can't_ blame this one on you."

"That's a nice change." Jellal really didn't feel like standing a second sham trial in less than three months. "Is Erza-?"

"She's fine. She's off traumatizing another interviewer – should be back soon."

Jellal smiled faintly. Oh, Erza.

"What about Phantom Lord?"

"Nothing official, yet, but there's talk that their guild is going to be dissolved. Master Jose's been arrested."

Jellal slowly pulled himself upright and looked around the room he was in. Erik was asleep in the bed next to him. Cubelios was curled up on the bed beside him, her left wing spread out over his chest. Bandages were holding compresses against his ears.

"What happened to Erik?" He did not like the implications of those compresses. Simon scowled – a highly uncharacteristic expression for him.

"A sound wizard from Phantom caught him off guard. Porlyusica says that, as long as nobody messes with the compresses, his eardrums should heal with no lasting damage."

Jellal's mouth twisted, and he eased himself back down.

Simon continued, recounting what had happened to the best of his knowledge after Jellal had been swarmed by shade phantoms. Elfman had gained control over his full body beast soul transformation during his battle against Sol. Gray had accidentally defeated Phantom Lord's rain woman, whom Lyon now had a massive crush on for some reason. Erza had apparently recovered enough to try attacking Master Jose head on. Natsu had had an epic battle with Black Steel Gajeel and won, rescuing Lucy in the process. Master Makarov had recovered and returned just in time to perform Fairy Law. It was all impressive stuff, even secondhand. Jellal was very put out that he'd missed it.

"Jellal!" Erza was standing in the doorway wearing her most intense casual-wear armor – full gauntlets and everything. She beamed with delight and rushed forward to crush Jellal in a very enthusiastic hug. "You're awake!"

"I'm glad you're okay, too," Jellal mumbled, his cheeks heating up. If Erza hadn't been wearing her breast plate, she would have been suffocating him with her cleavage. It was good to see that she really was alright in person. Getting his face mashed against metal was starting to get really uncomfortable, though. "Um, Erza? Armor?"

"Oh!" Erza let go of him and stepped back for a moment. She requipped in a flash of golden light. "How's this?" Erza smirked and struck a pose, the skirt of her sexy nurse costume hiking up dangerously high on her leg. Jellal was surprised that his face didn't burst into actual flames. It certainly felt like it was going to. Simon was laughing at him, too, the traitor.

"Well, my next interview will be starting soon – I should get going." Simon stood and offered his chair to Erza. "Just don't make him do anything too strenuous while I'm gone, Erza. He's supposed to be resting."

"Of course not," Erza smiled her best naughty smile. "Isn't a proper nurse supposed to do all the work for her patient?"

Jellal buried his face in his hands.

"You two are awful," he mumbled. He knew they weren't being serious, but they were in public! Erik was literally three feet away from them… even if he couldn't hear at the moment.

Simon clasped Jellal's shoulder with one hand and then left. Erza perched herself on the edge of Simon's abandoned chair still wearing her highly inappropriate outfit. She leaned forward and gave him a brief, gentle kiss on the cheek. Jellal felt his eyelids begin to droop.

Everyone was safe. He could rest.

* * *

 _A/N: This may be the only chapter this week. We shall see._

 _Thanks for reading!_


	13. Scrap Metal

_Chapter 13: Scrap Metal_

* * *

With Phantom Lord dissolved, it was next to impossible to find work. Oh, some of the former members had managed to filter into other wizard guilds, but nobody would touch Gajeel with a ten foot pole. His reputation was notorious, and he had managed to get on the bad side of Master Makarov and Fairy Tail. Nobody would give him work.

Well, almost nobody.

Gajeel hauled another twisted steel bar over his shoulder. The scrap yard was paying him a criminally low wage, but after nearly a month he had been desperate. It's not like he'd had much in the way of savings. The money he had earned had always gone towards rent, food, and decent iron (which wasn't cheap). At least he could afford to eat again. It seemed that the universe had decided to teach him humility the hard way. The scrapyard's owner didn't mind if he snacked on some of the smaller broken pieces of metal, so that was something.

He'd had a lot of time to think lately. Hauling for the scrap yard wasn't exactly a mentally stimulating exercise. And maybe… he had a few regrets. He was trying not to dwell on them too much (except the one where he hadn't managed to turn Salamander into an organic smear across the ground).

A familiar scent caught Gajeel's nose, but something was wrong about it. Not the smell itself but the context. Gajeel glanced up at the sky. Clear blue – not a cloud in sight.

"Gajee?"

Gajeel turned his head. Juvia was picking her way carefully through the scrapyard towards him. She'd cut her hair and was wearing a sleeveless dress. Most importantly, she wasn't carrying her umbrella. Gajeel didn't think he'd ever seen her looking so… happy.

"It's not raining," he stated by way of greeting.

Juvia beamed at him and then spread out her arms and lifted her face towards the sun.

"Isn't it wonderful? Gray made the rain stop. Juvia is no longer just a gloomy rain woman."

Gajeel grunted and then continued to walk. Out of all of his associates from Phantom Lord, Juvia was the only one Gajeel would have classified as a 'friend.' Even so, he wasn't in the mood to deal with happy people.

"What are you doing here?"

"Juvia has been worried about you. She has been trying to track you down since the guild was dissolved, but you never went back to Oak Town."

"Yeah, well, there wasn't much point, was there?" Gajeel dumped the steel beam in the pile he'd been making and turned to go get another. If he'd really put his mind to it, he probably could have had this done already, but if he was too quick, he'd put himself out of a job. As it was, he was already doing the work of three people.

"Have you tried the other guilds?"

"Yup. I'm blackballed. Unless I want to join a dark guild – and I ain't that desperate, yet – nobody wants a foul tempered dragonslayer who can barely read enough Fioran to understand job notices."

Juvia frowned and put her hands on her hips.

"You can read Fioran better than that these days. Juvia made sure of it."

"I'm a thug, Juvia. Nobody legitimate wants a thug associated with their guild."

A ball of water smacked into the back of his head, and Gajeel turned with a growl to glare at Juvia.

"You are not a thug."

"I am." This time his comment was rewarded by a miniature waterfall drenching him. "Will you quit that?!" he snapped. The most irritating thing about Juvia was that her water body made his magic almost useless for retaliation against this sort of thing (unless he was aiming to seriously injure her with a breath attack).

"Juvia will stop when Gajeel is done being a moron," Juvia informed him primly. He just rolled his eyes at her.

"So did you find a new guild? I'm sure somebody was thrilled to get their hands on one of the Element Four." Gajeel hauled another twisted steel beam over his shoulder.

"Juvia- Juvia has joined Fairy Tail." Her voice was soft.

Gajeel nearly dropped the steel beam.

" _What?!_ Are you _nuts?!_ Why didn't you go to Lamia Scale? Or Blue Pegasus? At least those bastards aren't going to be holding a grudge! The second you turn your back, those fairies will tear you to shreds!"

"Gray is in Fairy Tail!"

"Gray?"

"Juvia's love!" She clasped her hands together and practically did a little pirouette on the spot. It was, quite possibly, the most disturbing thing Gajeel had ever seen. "He is truly the most wonderful man in all the world! He saved Juvia's life even though she was the enemy and made the rain stop!"

Gajeel watched in growing horror as Juvia waxed on about the wonders of this 'Gray Fullbuster.' Not so long ago, he and Juvia had been Master Jose's go-to team for taking out problematic dark guilds. Juvia had been one of the only people in the guild not intimidated by their infamous iron dragonslayer. She was calm and cool under pressure, level-headed. He'd always appreciated that about her. Now she was bubbling like a hormone-riddled preteen. It was deeply unsettling.

Apparently all that excess sunshine had fried her brain.

It took nearly ten minutes, but finally Juvia's fangirling began to wind down. Gajeel had moved another six large chunks of scrap metal while she'd been babbling.

"But also," Juvia paused, "Fairy Tail is a warm guild. Their master doesn't encourage them to fight among themselves in order to receive the best paying jobs. They're- they're like family. Juvia… wishes to be a part of this family as well."

"They sound weak," Gajeel muttered, ignoring the bitterness in his own voice.

"You know they're not." Juvia paused again and then suggested hesitantly, "Gajeel could join Fairy Tail as well."

Gajeel snorted.

"Yeah. Right."

"They accepted Juvia."

"You helped kidnap _one_ of their members. I crucified three of them to a tree and destroyed their guildhall. Oh, and beat up that girl you kidnapped because I was bored. There's a bit of a difference." His voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Fairy Tail believes in forgiveness and second chances."

"That's a nice line – try it on some sucker who'll actually believe it. There ain't enough forgiveness in the world." Gajeel picked up a ragged sheet of metal that had once been part of a vehicle. "Nobody wants me. That's the way it's always been. I'm used to it."

"Gajeel is Juvia's friend. She would be sad if he were no longer around."

Gajeel looked away.

"Yeah, well, you've never been right in the head to begin with."

Juvia was silent for a long moment.

"Just think about it," she murmured. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a small, shiny black lump, and tossed it to him. Gajeel caught it with one hand. It was a small chunk of hematite. To an iron dragonslayer, hematite was basically like candy. "Juvia is also not above bribery," she added with a small smile. "So take that into consideration as well."

Gajeel simply popped the hematite into his mouth instead of responding. It tasted fantastic.

"I'll think about it," he finally consented, but that was a massive lie. There wasn't a chance in hell of Gajeel joining Fairy Tail. They'd probably skin him alive if he ever so much as set a toe within Magnolia's borders again. It would keep Juvia off his back for a little while though.

Short of some sort of divine intervention, Gajeel really only saw his future going one of two ways: a lifetime of non-magical physical labor or taking Raven Tail up on their offer. Neither option sounded particularly promising. A tiny part of Gajeel – the part that wanted to find Metalicana again – was hoping for just a touch of that divine intervention.

* * *

 _A/N: Gajeel and Juvia are one of my favorite Fairy Tail brOTPs._

 _Thank you so much to all of my guest reviewers last chapter! You are all fantastic!_


	14. Danelions

_Chapter 14: Dandelions_

* * *

Freed wasn't having doubts. He never doubted Laxus. Laxus had always known what was best even when they were children. But he may have had some… questions. Like, wasn't there a more efficient way of weeding out the weaklings of Fairy Tail than a battle royal? And wouldn't it be better to not do this in the middle of Fantasia? Freed hadn't voiced any of these thoughts, of course. Laxus obviously had his reasons for doing things this way even if he didn't feel it necessary that Freed be privy to those reasons. They were, no doubt, very good reasons, because this was Laxus. …Bickslow was the one who had raised those questions out loud a few days ago. Laxus had electrocuted him for his trouble, and Bickslow hadn't mentioned it again.

Freed tugged his jacket straight again even though it wasn't wrinkled. (That definitely wasn't a nervous habit.) Laxus had become more volatile in recent years. It was concerning, but now wasn't the time to be thinking about that.

Evergreen was in place and ready to make her grand entrance when the time was right, but Bickslow had wandered off again. Bickslow was the eternal chaos to Freed's order, and it drove Freed to distraction. It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't suspect that, at least some of the time, Bickslow was doing it on purpose. And now Freed had to find him. If Laxus found out about this, he'd be very upset. Best to find Bickslow before that happened. At least they were back in Magnolia, so Freed was already fairly certain that he knew where Bickslow would be.

The cemetery behind the cathedral was not Magnolia's only graveyard, but it was the largest and most central. For some reason, Bickslow always tended to gravitate there whenever they returned to Magnolia. Perhaps it was a side effect of his seith magic. When questioned, he claimed it was where 'his people' hung out, but Freed wasn't entirely convinced. Then again, Bickslow did have a tendency to chat animatedly to the dead. Well, that's what he said he was doing. Thanks to the type of magic Bickslow used, it was hard to tell where the sane ended and the crazy began.

Bickslow was, indeed, in the cemetery when Freed rematerialized on the cathedral roof, but he wasn't wandering aimlessly between the graves like he normally was when Freed found him. He was standing quiet and still in front of one grave in particular. The babies were hovering tight around his head. For some reason, he seemed to be looking back and forth between the tombstone and his left hand. With a thought and a flex of magic, Freed let his consciousness flow from the roof to the churchyard below.

"If you don't hurry up, you're going to make us late." Bickslow's shoulders tensed, and Freed regretted materializing behind him. That had been cruel like stealing Evergreen's glasses was cruel. There were things in the Thunder Legion you just didn't do. Taking away Evergreen's glasses was one. Sneaking up behind Bickslow was another. You also didn't ask about the ugly scar on Freed's right hip or mention Laxus's father. "Apologies. In my haste, I didn't think."

"Nah, it's fine," Bickslow waved him off. He turned and gave Freed a tongue-lolling grin, but Freed had known him long enough to tell that he was faking it.

"What were you doing here this time?" Freed asked. It wasn't that he was reluctant for the Battle of Fairy Tail to begin and trying to delay the inevitable. Definitely not. He was merely… curious.

"Oh, ya know – the usual. Talking to the dead. Telling them all about Laxus's dumb plan."

Freed bristled at that last bit.

"It is _not_ a _dumb_ -"

"It is an _incredibly_ dumb plan, and you know it," Bickslow interrupted, folding his arms.

"Know it! Know it!" squeaked the babies.

"Laxus knows what he's doing. This is for the best," Freed stated with more confidence than he actually felt.

"Laxus has been getting dark and smudgy around the edges for ages now. You can't trust black lightning."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying- Ah, hell with it – it doesn't matter. It's not like I'm going to back out anyway."

Unspoken, the words hung in the air between them – _We owe him too much._

"Were you talking to this particular grave for a reason?" Freed asked to distract himself from the anxiety building in his gut. Everything would be fine. After all, in this game, Freed wrote all the rules. Victory was all but guaranteed.

"Nope. It just… seemed like the thing to do. Somebody ought to apologize." Bickslow glanced down at his left hand again and flexed his fingers. "We got lucky with both Erza _and_ Ultear competing in the contest this year. Think Ever will catch them both?"

"Of course." Freed was more concerned with Jellal – he was wickedly fast and destructive when he needed to be and one of Fairy Tail's seven S-class wizards. (Well, six really these days, since Mirajane's grief had reduced her power to almost non-existent.) Mystogan and Gildarts were out of town, Ultear and Erza would be stone statues, and Laxus was, of course, orchestrating everything. That just left Jellal and possibly Natsu, depending on how much his power had increased since he had last seen him. Erik was easy enough to take down as long as you deafened him before he had a chance to react. Freed had planned for all of them. It was what he did best.

"Guess there's no more point in avoiding it. Come on, babies! Let's go beat up some of our guildmates!"

"Dishonor," grumbled one of the babies. Freed was fairly sure that had been Peppe talking. Out of the five of them, Peppe was the one that came up with its own opinions most often instead of just echoing. The others did it sometimes, too. Peppe just did it the most.

"Hey," Bickslow prodded the baby in question with one finger, "we've already had this conversation. No cake for you."

As they turned to leave, Freed hesitated and glanced back to see what the name was on the gravestone Bickslow had been standing in front of.

 _Lisanna Strauss_

Three fresh-picked dandelions lay at the headstone's base. Against the gray of the stone, they looked like bright yellow sunbursts.

Freed wondered what Bickslow could possibly have had to say to Mirajane and Elfman's little sister and why he had felt the need to leave her flowers.


	15. Crater

_Chapter 15: Crater_

* * *

Bickslow lay on his back and stared thoughtfully up at the sky. Loke had really gone overboard with that last attack. Damn, that pipsqueak was strong now that he had access to his full celestial power. Bickslow had been thrown halfway across town with that blast. He was lucky he hadn't broken his neck. And Bickslow was probably never going to live down that he'd gotten his ass handed to him by the newbie, but he didn't particularly care.

The cosplayer had been cute, easy on the eyes, and the golden glimmer of her soul had been far too kind. He hadn't had the heart to go full out on her no matter what he'd said. After all, he was a circus brat – evading a whip should have barely slowed him down. And when someone caught you in a whip, you didn't try to pull away – you ran straight at them because a) without the tension the whip would lose its grip, and b) it generally freaked out the person you were running at. But Bickslow had played it like an amateur. Let the cosplayer have her victory – he was tired of this.

Overhead, the sky was incredibly blue and the remains of the Thunder Palace slowly wafted through the air. The babies were bopping back and forth above him, annoyed that Loke's magic had disintegrated their latest bodies. They hated being 'naked,' but Bickslow was too tired and bruised to transfer them to new containers. Besides, the crater he was lying in was kinda comfy. Maybe he'd just go to sleep right here. It was as good a place as any. Maybe when he woke up, somebody would have beaten the sense back into Laxus. Unlikely, but it was a nice thought.

Bickslow closed his eyes and let his thoughts drift. They were all probably going to get thrown out of Fairy Tail for this. He'd miss his guild mark. Smiling wouldn't be as much fun without it.

"I don't suppose you're actually dead down there."

Bickslow opened one eye to find a familiar clan-marked face staring down at him. Mystogan Fernandes had one of his staffs in hand and was watching him with calm wariness. Jellal claimed that Mystogan was his twin brother, but he wasn't. Bickslow had met other identical twins. None of them had ever had nearly identical souls. The only real differences between Mystogan and Jellal's souls were their red strings and the gold cast of Jellal's magic. If Bickslow didn't know better, he would have said that Mystogan didn't actually _have_ any magic. So, yeah, they definitely weren't twins, but that was their business. Just like with Loke, Bickslow had always left the matter alone.

"Not dead – just resting. I don't suppose you're stopping by to say that you managed to kick Laxus's ass?" he asked hopefully, because, seriously, somebody needed to do that. He pulled his visor back on. It had been a good day so far, but he was too tired to trust his eyes at the moment.

"No, I left that in the capable hands of Natsu and Gajeel."

The hell?

"Why would you do a dumb thing like that? Aren't Erza and Jellal running around again?" Bickslow thought about sitting up but decided against it. The rough landing had made his head woozy and, besides, he was comfy.

"Erza, Jellal, and Ultear worked together to take out the majority of the Thunder Palace with the assistance of those others still conscious. I was sent to ensure that you and Evergreen would not cause any further… disturbance." Mystogan rolled his staff between his hands.

"What about Freed?"

"It seems that Mirajane has regained access to her Satan soul."

Bickslow blanched. Well, shit. Hopefully, somebody had been kind enough to get a bucket to scrape up Freed's remains. Bickslow would be sure to say something suitably inappropriate at his funeral. He'd have to make sure that Freed's soul crossed over properly, too, and didn't stick around to become vengeful.

"Well, you don't have to worry about-" Bickslow was interrupted by a sound like the ringing of a gong. A bright white light swept through Magnolia. Bickslow blinked the spots out of his eyes once it had passed. "That idiot," he grumbled. "Thank god he's still extra glow-y in the middle."

"Fairy Law," Mystogan frowned and glanced around. "I'm surprised no one's hurt."

"Eh," Bickslow shrugged, "that new dragonslayer might be a charcoal briquette, but probably not. Laxus is still too glow-y to actually kill any of the guild with that spell." Mystogan gave him an odd look but didn't question what Bickslow meant. That was the general reaction people had whenever he commented on souls. Poppo chose that moment to perch on Bickslow's visor. Bickslow gently batted the soul away.

"I take it you won't be aiding Laxus further, then?"

"I did as much as I'm willing to. Laxus is an idiot, and he wouldn't want my help now anyway. This was never going to work. We all knew it, even if Laxus didn't."

"Then why did you go along with it?"

"We're the Thunder Legion." Bickslow didn't understand why people found that so confusing. Laxus hadn't always been smudgy with anger around the edges. He used to be so _bright_. They owed him a debt – all of them. They owed him so much that it would take lifetimes to properly repay it. They hadn't agreed to this because of the man that Laxus was _now_ but because of the man that he _had been_. And might hopefully one day be again. "How long do you think I'll have to pack before Master Makarov throws us out? I wanna get pancakes."

"I doubt the master will throw you out of the guild."

"Sure he will. We hurt our guildmates. Makarov has _views_." Hopefully getting thrown out of Fairy Tail wouldn't mean not being allowed in Magnolia. Most of the civilians here had nice souls.

"I think you might be surprised." Mystogan straightened up. "Do you intend to lie there all day?"

"Nothing better to do." It was a terribly comfortable crater. The babies had gotten over their snit about the lack of 'clothing' and were nestled on his chest. They looked sort of like contented jellyfish.

Mystogan abruptly jerked his head up towards the sky and frowned. He muttered something under his breath that sounded like 'animal' and 'it's getting closer.'

"If you keep making that face, you'll get crackled," Bickslow informed him. Mystogan's soul was already a bundle of nerves – it didn't need the additional stress. Mystogan ignored him.

"I must be going," Mystogan murmured. He spun and left in a swirl of cloak. He did that a lot. Bickslow was fairly certain that Mystogan only wore it because it made his exits look more dramatic. Whatever.

Bickslow wiggled his fingers over the babies in the way that made them glow extra bright. Happy jellyfish. Then he closed his eyes and continued to drift.

* * *

 _A/N: Please feed the author. Even if it's just a smiley face, every little bit helps and is appreciated. Thanks for reading!_


	16. Courting Chaos

_Chapter 16: Courting Chaos_

* * *

Lucy stared up at the front of Master Bob's mansion and sighed. Why had the master decided to send her on this mission again? They were teaming up with three other guilds to attack an extremely powerful dark guild. Sending the others all made sense. Erza, Jellal, Simon, Natsu, and Erik were some of the strongest wizards in Fairy Tail. So why had he thought it was a good idea to send a newbie like Lucy along?

Oh, yeah, apparently she had a talent for keeping Natsu relatively focused, and she and Natsu had gone on jobs with Erza's team before. (She, Natsu, and Happy tended to float back and forth between Team Erza and the Ice Djinn Trio for jobs.) Lucy had a nagging feeling, though, that she had actually been sent in the vague hope that she could keep Natsu and Erik from killing each other. Erik was quite possibly the only man in Fairy Tail who wasn't completely cowed by Erza, but then again not much seemed to phase Erik. Honestly, if Erza wasn't enough of a threat to keep Natsu and Erik in line, Lucy had no idea what she was supposed to do about it.

The foyer of the house had a wide, sweeping staircase and chandeliers. It reminded Lucy of the mansion of one of her father's former business associates.

"It's a beautiful building," Jellal commented, pointedly ignoring the way that Erik and Natsu were glowering at each other. Simon nodded. For such a cheerful and positive person, it always struck Lucy as odd that Jellal favored such a dark wardrobe. "Mystogan would like it. He likes open, airy architecture."

"He definitely would," Erza agreed.

"Mystogan?" asked Lucy.

Jellal looked surprised.

"You haven't met him, yet? I guess I shouldn't really be surprised – he's pretty shy and didn't exactly hang around after that stunt Laxus pulled. Mystogan is my twin brother." Jellal paused, an odd expression flickering across his face so fast that Lucy almost missed it. "Well, more or less."

Before Lucy could ask what he meant – either you _were_ someone's twin brother or you _weren't_ , there wasn't exactly a lot of middle ground – three young men appeared on the stairs and things got… weird. Like, 'how did I end up in a host club and isn't this sexual harassment' weird. Lucy didn't mind a bit of fawning, but this was just awkward and uncomfortable. And why did the tsundere one seem to like her best?

Then Hibiki made the mistake of trying put an arm around Erza. It was a very big mistake, because Jellal and Simon were already looking kind of twitchy and upset. They always seemed rather protective of Erza even though she was the strongest member of their team. Lucy was still surprised when Simon grabbed Hibiki by the front of the shirt, lifted him up, looked him dead in the eye, and rumbled, "She's already in a relationship."

"Of course, my apologies!" Hibiki wheezed, wide eyed. His feet weren't actually touching the floor. Simon let go, and Hibiki's shoes hit the carpeting with a muffled thud.

"Now then, we're here to work, not have fun," spoke a smooth voice from the staircase. Lucy looked up and blanched. His voice was definitely the only smooth thing about this guy. He was- He was- "Mmm! What a beautiful parfum!" Oh gods, he was sniffing her! Creepy! "Get all of this cleaned up!"

"Yes, boss!" came the chorus, and the three young men began rushing about, cleaning up the mess they had made.

"I-Ichiya," Erza stuttered. _Stuttered_. She appeared to be fixed in place by horror. Lucy thought Erza might have been shaking, because her armor was rattling faintly.

"Ah! My glorious Titania Erza!" Ichiya swooped in for a sniff. "As always you have the most wondrous par-"

 _WHAM!_

A burst of radiant golden starlight sent Ichiya flying towards the entrance doors. Jellal was holding his arm out straight, palm perpendicular to the ground and pointing at where Ichiya had been standing less than a second ago. Jellal's expression was terrifyingly neutral.

"I thought you were supposed to be the team's diplomat!" Lucy screeched. How were they supposed to take on Oracion Seis if they all killed each other first?!

Ichiya didn't hit the door because someone had opened the door just as he had been sent flying. Instead, Ichiya bounced of the air just in front of a short, unimpressed man with the most ridiculously massive eyebrows Lucy had ever seen.

"How… predictable," the man sneered and raised one humungous eyebrow.

"Oh. I was hoping that Fairy Tail would send the Ice Djinn Trio. After all, the wonderful Lyon is… love. But then again I suppose his absence is also love." A woman with long pink hair followed the man with the truly spectacular eyebrows through the door looking forlorn.

Eyebrows let out an annoyed sigh,

"It's best that the Ice Djinn aren't here, Sherry. It would have made things even more awkward."

Lucy frowned at them. Short with huge eyebrows. Pink hair and 'love.' Why did this all sound so familiar…? Oh, god. These were some of the people Gray had mentioned fighting during that whole Galuna Island-Deliora fiasco. They really had gone straight and joined a proper guild in the end, then? Thank heavens the Ice Djinn Trio had been away on a job when the master had assigned this mission. Lyon still hid under the table at the mere mention of the 'love' woman, Sherry. As for Gray and Ultear…. Well, the less said, the better.

"Honestly, Ichiya, at least try to show some decorum." A massive bald man followed through the door, stepping fastidiously over Ichiya's slightly singed form.

"Meeeen…," came the quiet groan from the floor.

"We are the representatives from Lamia Scale," continued the bald man. He eyed Ichiya who had started inching like a caterpillar towards his students and safety. "I see that this alliance is already off to a promising start."

There was a sound of a scuffle behind her, and Lucy turned just in time to see Cubelios flatten Natsu to the ground with a smack of her tail while a somewhat rumpled Erik looked smug. Damn it! When had those two started fighting again?

Eyebrows let out a snort.

"Really? Fairy Tail felt it necessary to send _six_ wizards? But then, I suppose you don't have anyone strong enough to match Jura in your guild, do you?"

Erik and Natsu abruptly stopped squabbling and turned as one to face this insult. Arguments over what constituted a dragon and a _real_ dragon slayer could wait in the face of such blatant slander to their guild. Erik had on his so-incredibly-calm-he-looked-like-he-was-going-to-murder-you face, and Natsu's right fist was on fire.

"Are you calling our guild weak?" Natsu snarled.

"He is. I can hear him," Erik confirmed a little too causally. Behind him, Cubelios rose up and flared her wings.

Jellal quickly stepped in before things could escalate any further.

"How about everybody takes a step back and calms down. We're here to work together – this isn't a competition. Save your energy for Oracion Seis."

"You're hardly one to talk!" yelped one of Ichiya's students. Lucy thought his name was Eve. "You blasted Ichiya in the face!"

Jellal's expression didn't even show the slightest bit of remorse.

"He was invading Erza's personal space even though he's been warned before what would happen if he ever did that again. He knew exactly what the consequences would be," Jellal informed the younger man cheerfully. "Now," he continued, "three of the four teams of representatives are here. We're just waiting on the representative from Caitshelter."

"They only sent one person?" asked Sherry incredulously. The bald man, who Lucy supposed was the 'Jura' Eyebrows had been taking about before, nodded.

"Just how powerful are they?" asked Hibiki.

"They must have enough power to rival one of the wizard saints," mused Erza.

Lucy bit her lip. Whoever it was, was probably incredibly dangerous. What guild would be confident enough to send just one person on such an exceedingly perilous mission?

There was a patter of feet, a quiet squeak, and a loud _thud_.

A small girl with long blue hair was lying sprawled face first on the carpet. She couldn't have been more than twelve.

"Ow," she mumbled, sitting up. "Um." She looked up at their staring faces, and her cheeks pinked with embarrassment.

"Are you alright?" asked Simon, crouching down and offering her a hand up.

"Y-yes." She accepted the hand and then brushed off the front of her dress once she was standing. "I'm Wendy Marvel from Caitshelter," she told them shyly. "I'm sorry I'm late. It's very nice to meet all of you."

Simon was the only one to react. Everyone else was too busy trying to process the idea that somebody had sent a twelve year old to help take down a dark guild.

Simon took ahold of her upper arms in his huge hands and lifted her straight off the ground like she was a feather. Wendy let out an 'eep!' of surprise. He stared at her for a long moment.

"You're adorable," he finally declared. "I want one." Simon turned his head to look pointedly at Erza and Jellal. "Make me one." Then he set Wendy back down and patted her on the head.

Jellal's face had gone very red. Erza was just eyeing Wendy speculatively.

"S-Simon!" Jellal squawked. "You know the deal! No kids until you make S-class, and Erza says she's ready!" He crossed his arms uncomfortably.

Lucy really, _really_ didn't understand the relationship between those three, and she didn't want to either.

"I can't believe they sent that kid all by herself," someone muttered.

"She isn't all by herself," corrected a haughty voice. "I came with her as well."

And another bipedal talking cat walked into Lucy's life, though this one was white and female. Happy's jaw nearly fell off. And the world descended into a vacillation between cuteness overload, awkwardness, and Simon chasing Ichiya's students around the room for being perverts who hit on not-even-teenage-yet girls.

"Wendy. I know that name from somewhere." Natsu looked like he was trying to concentrate. He scrunched up his face. "I can't remember." He turned to Erik. "Can you remember?"

"I can _hear people's thoughts_. I can't _read minds_ ," Erik growled.

"There's a difference?"

Lucy resisted the urge to put her head in her hands. This group would be lucky if they didn't all kill each other within the next hour. How exactly were they supposed to stop Oracion Seis?

* * *

 _A/N: Hours after I posted the previous chapter last week, there was an unexpected loss in my family. Many of the chapters of this story are already written, chapter 17, however, is not, and I am not currently in the right headspace to be writing it. So I'm giving you, as my readers, a choice. Would you prefer to skip the next chapter (in other words, Wendy reacting to seeing Jellal) and continue with the regular updates, or would you rather wait for me to be in a place where I can write again (which may take a month or more)?_


	17. Tearing Open the Wound

_A/N: Screw it. I give up. Thank you all so much for your patience and kind words. My life has been on a hellish roller coaster for the past couple months, and it doesn't look there's going to be any sort of significant improvement soon. I'm tired of watching this story gather dust while I slam my head against writer's block, so here, at long last, is a new chapter! (I'll go back and add in the promised Wendy and Jellal chapter at a later date.)_

* * *

 _Chapter 17: Tearing Open the Wound_

* * *

Erik leaned again a tree and was violently ill. Cubelios twisted around him and hissed soothingly.

He hadn't recognized their faces or their new names. Not after so many years. Back then they had all just been scared kids. It had been at least a decade since then, and their faces had long since dimmed and faded in his memory. But their voices. Erik remembered their voices. Erik always remembered people's voices.

" _Well, if it isn't Cobra. Fancy meeting a traitor like you here."_

Erik threw up again. He'd almost forgotten that the white-haired man used to call him that. The ugly scar on Erik's chest throbbed with phantom pain.

They had barely survived the attack. Erik had frozen up completely, unable to move. Sawyer had shattered Erza's arm with a well-placed kick while she had been distracted. Jellal was down from taking a spell from Brain head-on. Wendy had been taken for who knew what reason. They'd all been knocked down like dominos. If Jura's timing hadn't been _perfect_ , they would all be dead. And Erik had been absolutely, completely _useless_.

Now everyone who could was pulling themselves to their feet to assess the damage and figure out what to do next. He couldn't focus on what anyone was saying. Something about Ichiya's painkiller parfum not being able to fix Erza's broken bones. Too much noise. He needed to calm down. Their voices wouldn't get out of his head. His ears strained to follow them as they got further and further away. He scrabbled for the noise canceling headphones around his neck, but his hands were shaking so badly that he dropped them. Cubelios let out a distressed hiss.

"Erik? What's wrong?" Simon's voice. Erik clung to it, tried to drag himself out of the past and back to reality with it. He was surrounded by a semicircle of worried and concerned faces.

"Yeah, man, what happened? Why were those creeps acting like they know you?" For once, Natsu's loud voice was comforting instead of grating.

"Because they do know me," Erik rasped. His eyes sought Simon, Erza and Jellal. "They- they were all on the Tower. They were experiments like me." Their eyes widened in horror. "Brain, he's the one who implanted the lacrima in my chest." He could barely force the words out. His brain was buzzing. He could feel the knife slicing into his skin again…. "I- I left them behind when I escaped. I thought Cubelios's bite had killed him!" Cubelios caught him before his knees could collapse.

There was some general swearing at these revelations from his fellow Fairy Tail wizards. The wizards from the other guilds just looked confused.

"The Tower?" asked Eve.

"The final tower of the R-System," Simon rumbled, not looking away from Erik. "They used slaves – mostly children – to build it. Some of the children were used for experimentation instead of labor."

"That's awful!" gasped Lucy.

"So the people we're fighting were all victims of this Tower, then?" asked Sherry.

"Yes," Erza confirmed, her voice grim. Even through his haze, Erik could still hear the slight edge of pain in her words. Not just physical pain. Erza had always felt responsible for every single person who had escaped the Tower. The knowledge that there had been other children like Erik who had slipped through the cracks probably hurt her more than her splintered bones.

His focus began slipping again as guilt tugged at him from all sides. He had abandoned them. He'd left the others alone with that monster. And now they were horrible twisted caricatures of the children they had once been.

Logically, Erik _knew_ that there was nothing more that he could have done. He and Cubelios had barely made it out. It had mostly been pure luck. Brain had started to seize after Cubelios had managed to bite him, and Erik had just run without looking back. He'd spent _months_ running, afraid that if he slowed down someone would drag him back to that awful place again. He'd had a taste of real freedom right after they'd escaped from the Tower, and he had wanted it again desperately. And he'd been able to hear the lies laced artfully in Brain's words.

"Erik. _Erik._ " Erik grasped onto the present once more. Damn it, he'd zoned out again. Jellal was staring at him intensely, studying his face. "Are you with me again?"

"Yeah," Erik nodded, running his fingers over Cubelios's scales for comfort.

"Good. Can you focus well enough to fight?"

Erik stopped and really considered this question. The worst thing he could do during a life-or-death battle was get in the way.

"Not yet, but I will be. I'm fine for aerial reconnaissance, though."

"Alright. We need to find Wendy. Charle says that she should be able to fully heal Erza's arm. Then we need to locate Nirvana before the Oracion Seis does. Hibiki is going to use his archive magic to keep track of all of us, so you'll be able to relay any messages through him." Jellal rattled off all this information with quick efficiency.

"Eyes in the sky. Find Wendy. Find Nirvana. Relay through Blue Pegasus," Erik repeated back to show that he understood. Jellal nodded approvingly.

"When you're safe to, join the fight." He put a hand on Erik's shoulder and gave a light squeeze before standing up. "Ichiya said that he has a scent that can help with shock, so maybe get a whiff of that before you and Cubelios take off." Erik didn't mean to but he caught Jellal's stray thought as he turned away. _Stay safe. I hope we find Wendy soon._

Ichiya's parfum smelled unpleasantly of lilacs, but it did help to clear Erik's head for the moment. It didn't do much for his morale though.

"Come on, Cubelios." Together they leapt of the edge of the cliff and soared up into the sky. From above, the endless stretch of green looked almost peaceful, except for a few darkened patches of corruption presumably caused by Nirvana. The cool air rushing passed his face cleared Erik's mind better than Ichiya's strange lilac-scented magic had.

He had a job to do. For now, he had to push his ghosts away and focus on the battle in front of him. He couldn't actually bleed out from a wound with no physical form, no matter what it felt like.

Erik crouched down on Cubelios's back, let his eyes scan the forest canopy below, and _listened_.

* * *

 _A/N: Brain still has nefarious plans for Wendy even without a Jellal that he needs resurrected. Thanks for reading!_


	18. Under Arrest

_Chapter 18: Under Arrest_

* * *

Erik lay on his back and stared at the sky. Just thinking made his muscles hurt. On the one hand, they had defeated the Oracion Seis. (Erik shoved the thoughts of the children he'd once known down deep and locked them away. He couldn't think about that again right now.) On the other hand… there had been a miniature zombie apocalypse. Caused by Wendy when her powers had been inverted for evil. Erik had always known that dragonslayers who were actually trained by dragons were more powerful but… yikes. Wendy and her undead army were not something that he was going to be forgetting any time soon. It hadn't been a very big army, but then it hadn't needed to be. Brain had come prepared with the corpses of some _damn_ powerful wizards.

Poor kid. She was going to be devastated when she woke up and found out what Brain had made her do.

Cubelios shifted her head on Erik's chest and let out a gusty snake sigh. Erik was inclined to agree with her sentiment. Fighting that bearded guy with the eye patch had been exhausting. He would have hated to fight him while he was still alive and at full power. The ground wasn't shaking any more from the footsteps of Nirvana, so he was going to assume that the others had figured out how to stop it. It had probably involved Natsu doing something really stupid and impressive. Well, somebody would come along and find him sooner or later.

He wondered absently where Simon had gotten to. He'd been pretty upset about that whole Wendy and the zombies thing. Not that he blamed him. Erik had been pretty upset about the Wendy and the zombies thing, too. She was only, what? Twelve? Thirteen? Wendy hadn't deserved to go through any of that.

His head ached. Erik was just profoundly grateful that none of the zombie wizards had thought to overload his hearing. Speaking of hearing….

Somebody was coming. A lot of somebodies actually. Erik could count at least twenty separate sets of feet. Probably more than that, but his concentration was shot. Erik frowned and tried to focus. He could just make out the faint jingle of… weapons. Ah, the Magic Council had finally gotten off their asses and decided to do something. It was about time.

Ever so slowly Erik raised one hand and began scratching the sensitive underside of Cubelios's chin. She flickered her tongue in contentment and gave her wings a small, fluttering stretch. She was just as exhausted as he was and also a bit disappointed at not getting a second shot at biting Brain. When they got back home, he was going to give her three whole rats – she had definitely earned them. And he was going to drink an entire _pitcher_ of belladonna neat with a strychnine chaser because he _deserved it_.

Hopefully the morons the Council had sent had brought a stretcher with them – walking sounded like way too much effort at the moment. Erik was drained.

More footsteps coming from the other direction. He could just make out the faint but distinctive clank of Erza's casual armor. At least one of his guildmates was alright. Good.

A shadow fell across Erik's face. He levered open an eyelid that he hadn't noticed was shut. A man in official white robes and glasses was staring down at him. Was the Council actually capable of sending reinforcements in a timely manner?

"Took you long enough," Erik grumbled and let his eye slip back shut again. Cubelios let out an exhausted hiss of agreement.

"Cobra, you are under arrest for aiding and abetting the dark guild known as Oracion Seis."

Both of Erik's eyes abruptly popped open.

" _WHAT?!_ "

"You are bound by law and magic to-"

"I'm a _Fairy Tail wizard_ , you dumbass!" Erik snarled as he struggled against the hands that were suddenly reaching out to restrain him from all sides. He hadn't been kidding about being magically and physically drained. He probably couldn't have fended off Reedus at the moment let alone ten well-rested guards. Cubelios reared back and flared her wings protectively over Erik. If she hadn't been equally as tired, she would have already been spitting venom in Glasses Guy's face by now.

A few of the smarter guards backed up, but not enough of them. Erik took the opportunity to scrabble at his coat. If he could just get it off and _show them_ his guild mark….

 _Fwp._

To most ears, the sound would have been barely audible. To Erik's ears, it resounded like a thunderclap.

A dart sprouted out of the side of Cubelios's neck.

Time slowed down. Cubelios sank to the ground, her eyes going foggy.

Erik _screamed_ in rage, and everything went _red_.

Adrenaline surged through his veins, and he _lunged_ at the nearest man's face, his fingers hooked into claws. Somewhere along the way, he blacked out from shear fury.

When Erik finally came to, there was someone sitting on his chest. It was…

"Loke?" Erik wheezed.

"Ah, good, you're coherent again. Cubelios is fine – it was just a tranquillizer dart." Loke stood and brushed himself off.

"-unprovoked assault of a Fairy Tail wizard!" That was Erza's voice ringing loud and clear and full of righteous indignation.

"Erza, please, there's no need to get nasty." Jellal was using his razor-sharp calm voice that bled the unwary dry. "We don't need to lower ourselves to name calling-"

"Indeed, I admit mistakes were made-" Glasses Guy's voice began, but Jellal cut him off smoothly.

"-The best course of action would, of course, be to file charges of gross negligence against him."

There was a sound like tightly restrained spluttering, and Erik stopped listen. The bastard deserved whatever Jellal did to him.

"Is everyone okay?" Erik asked, lifting himself up on one elbow.

"All limbs present, accounted for, and still attached." Simon sat down next to him. His arm was in a sling. "Nothing that won't heal in a week or two."

Erik nodded, not fully paying attention, because he'd finally spotted Cubelios. Wendy was crouched next to her, her hands glowing blue with magic. The blue-haired girl looked pale and drawn. Dark circles ringed the bottoms of her eyes. She offered Charle a tremulous smile which became more steady and honest as Cubelios began to stir.

Erik flopped back down with a sigh of relief. Cubelios was going to be alright. He could pass out in peace.

* * *

 _A/N: Evil healers are scary._


	19. The Red Strings of Fate

_Chapter 19: The Red Strings of Fate_

* * *

Bickslow had been able to see the red strings for almost as long as he'd been able to see souls. It was something of a hobby really. It made for excellent entertainment.

Bickslow grinned as he plopped down on a barstool and turned to watch the crowded guildhall. Evergreen and Freed were supposed to be meeting him soon so that they could leave on a job which meant no drinking before they arrived or suffer Ever's wrath. He was not in the mood to be beaten with her fan today. So he settled in to entertain himself with soul watching instead.

People thought that Mirajane got some crazy ideas about who people ought to end up with, but she had nothing on Bickslow. He could actually _see_ the red strings connecting fated matches which just made it funnier when people tried to ignore them. He made a killing in the guild betting pools. Nobody had figured out his secret, yet.

Of course it wasn't just as simple and straight forward as everybody having one red string that guaranteed that they and the person on the other end would live happily ever after together. It was far more complicated than that – life always was. People had to work for it. Many people had more than one string. Sometimes that meant that they had a choice, like Natsu, Cana, or that new cosplayer girl, Lucy. Sometimes it meant that they were destined to be with more than one person, like Erza, Jellal, and Simon. Nobody dared to ask for details of the trio's relationship beyond that it was apparently "consensual," but Bickslow could see the truth plain as day. The red strings wrapped around their wrists tied them together into a perfectly balanced triangle. There were other straightforward couples in the guild, like Alzack and Bisca, who had a single bright red cord connecting their shoulders. If they ever got over their shyness and realized that their feelings were mutual, not even a crowbar would be able to tear those two apart. There were people who had no strings at all, like Laki and Reedus. Maybe they weren't interested. Maybe they just didn't have anyone "fated," and the universe had left it up to them to decide. You didn't need to have a red string to be able to fall in love.

And then there were the… entertaining people. Like Evergreen. She had one red string and it was tied directly to her heart – that was a kind of connection you absolutely couldn't ignore. And who was on the other end of that string? None other than _Elfman_ , whom Ever regularly claimed to despise. She made hilarious screeching noises when Bickslow told her she was protesting too much. Or when he "accidentally" shoved her on top of Elfman during guild bar brawls. Really, it was the little things in life.

Or there was that massive, messed-up knot-of-a-thing going on between Gray, Juvia, and Lyon. Even Bickslow couldn't tell who was supposed to end up with who in that one. The longer Juvia was a member of the guild, the more snarled up the knot became.

Or there was Erik. Who shared a single bright thread with his _flying snake_ , Cubelios. That raised all sorts of disturbing questions.

Bickslow glanced back towards the entrance as he heard the doors open. Maybe Freed and Ever had arrived early? Nope. Bickslow burst out laughing. He always did when he caught sight of Gajeel. How could you not? The guy was absolutely hilarious! Bickslow watched as the iron dragon slayer plodded across the guildhall and sat down heavily at his preferred dark table in the corner. Never, in his entire life, had Bickslow ever seen one person so tangled up in his own red string. There was just the one, but it was wrapped around and around his chest so many times that he was practically cocooned in red. And on the other end of that string was sweet little Levy McGarden with a single red thread tied delicately around her wrist. If things didn't work out between them, Levy would be able to walk away – heartbroken but still able to move on with her life. Gajeel… would not. He'd probably just curl up in a ditch somewhere and die. You almost had to feel sorry for the guy. It was one of the reasons that Bickslow was completely unconcerned about Gajeel ever betraying Fairy Tail. Besides, who was he to judge? The Thunder Legion had done _almost_ as much damage to the guild as Phantom Lord and Gajeel had, and the main difference was that Laxus hadn't told them to tear the guildhall down.

Bickslow shook his head, trying to refocus on the hilarity that was the guild's red string problem instead of his own morose thoughts, but it was too late. And just like they did every other time his thoughts had turned dark over the past two years, they turned to his left hand and the single red string tied to his own finger.

His babies clustered closer around his head, sensing his change in mood.

He hadn't even been able to attend her funeral. Laxus had already been well on the path to darkness by then, and when someone from the guild had gotten ahold of them, he hadn't been interested in returning for a "weakling's funeral." Bickslow had never told _anyone_ about the red strings – not even the rest of the Thunder Legion – so he had kept his mouth shut for once. He'd put a flower on her grave when they eventually got back from their mission.

Bickslow had never really gotten to know Lisanna. She had been several years younger than him, and, well, maybe he'd been a little bit afraid to. Because Lisanna had had two red threads on the little finger of her right hand. A choice. And by the time Bickslow joined Fairy Tail and he met Lisanna for the first time, it was obvious that she had already chosen Natsu. But he hadn't minded too much. She was better off without him. Maybe they could still be friends. It had never happened. He'd talked to her a few times, but the Thunder Legion was away more on missions than they were in Magnolia. And then Lisanna had been gone. Permanently.

But that was the part that didn't make sense.

Bickslow looked down at the faint red string still tied around his left pinkie finger. It was taunt and pointing up towards the sky of some reason just as it had for the last two years. If Lisanna was really dead, his thread should be broken and fluttering like the one around Master Makarov's left arm. Every time he looked at his hand, his eyes were telling him that Lisanna was still alive which _made no sense_. And he couldn't talk to anybody about it. People got _really_ uncomfortable when he started talking about the details of his soul sight, and he'd never told anybody about the red strings. He couldn't exactly ask Mirajane or Elfman, "Hey, was there actually a body to bury for your sister's funeral? Nobody ever told me." Even _he_ wasn't that insensitive. Or suicidal. Nobody held a grudge like Mirajane when she put her mind to it.

So he couldn't be sure or ask anyone, but he hoped. He hoped that somewhere out there that glittering soul of diamond sunlight was still alive and smiling.

A fan smacked him hard across the head. There was a reason that Bickslow wore a helmet beyond just concealing his sometimes difficult to control figure eyes. Evergreen was a menace with a fan.

"What is with you? I called your name three times and you didn't even look up! You made me walk the entire way across the guild." She scowled at him.

"And good morning to you, too, Ever." He grinned and waggled his tongue at her. "I was thinking."

"Thinking! Thinking!" his babies chorused.

Ever rolled her eyes,

"And I'm sure you injured yourself doing it. Come on – Freed's waiting outside, and we'll miss our train if you don't hurry up."

Bickslow gamely hopped up and followed along behind her, his babies trailing him like ducklings. He spared his left hand one last glance.

He hoped he'd be there to see it on the day when Lisanna finally came home.

* * *

 _A/N: Before anyone has a heart attack about me including something that looks like an OT3, yes - red strings in this universe CAN very occasionally be platonic. (Bickslow didn't mention it because it's not something he's run into at this point.) Take that information and apply it to Simon and his relationship with Erza and Jellal as you see fit, because Erza, Jellal, and Simon are never going to elaborate on the subject. It's open to interpretation._

 _I'm still taking shipping suggestions beyond the four I already have planned, by the way. I have one vote for Ultear/Laxus and that's more or less it. Anyone else have any thoughts?_


	20. A Matter of Linguistics

_Chapter 20: A Matter of Linguistics_

* * *

Levy loved language. It was just a fact of who she was, and it always had been. She loved the way different accents shaped vowels and consonants. She loved the nuances and connotations. She loved the different writing systems. She loved being able to open ancient tomes and decipher meanings that no one had been able to comprehend in years. She loved decrypting rune spells. And most of all, she loved learning new languages. Levy's mother had been from Bosco, so she had grown up speaking two languages. Some of her favorite memories of her mother were of her teaching Levy to read from an old Boscan book of children's stories about fairies and sea monsters and dragons. Already being bilingual it made it all the easier for her to pick up new languages. Levy could speak four languages fluently, order dinner and avoid getting arrested in three more, and read and write in nearly eight, which came in very handy when one of your team's specialties was research.

But some of her favorite languages were the extinct ones. Those were much, _much_ harder to learn. Often no one had heard them spoken in hundreds of years. And to Levy it seemed such a shame, because words were alive in their own way. Having someone read and understand them gave words life. To her, unread books always looked so lonely and sad. So anytime she saw an opportunity to learn an old, forgotten language, Levy grabbed it with both hands – even if it meant dragging Jet and Droy halfway across Fiore to do so. They had learned to recognize and dread that special look in her eyes that she got when she got a lead on learning another dead language.

There was a whole section in the guild library dedicated to books and scrolls written in languages nobody could read. One of Levy's goals was to someday be able to read them all.

So there was always a little part of Levy's brain on the lookout for alphabets that she didn't recognize or letters put together in an unusual way (which couldn't simply be put down to bad or creative spelling). It wasn't something that she was necessarily consciously aware of doing, but she was always checking.

And that was why Levy couldn't help but glance down at the job notice sitting by Gajeel's elbow as she walked past. She noticed that he'd made a few notes on it as most wizards did – usually about directions, train times, or speculations on what they might need to bring with them. It took her three more steps to realize that she didn't even recognize the alphabet he was using. Or, to be more accurate, it was an alphabet she thought she'd seen on some of those illegible books in the library. Levy froze, one foot still in the air.

On the one hand, Gajeel still made her a little nervous. She trusted him not to kill her these days and to protect the guild – the snafu with Laxus and the Battle of Fairy Tail had helped a lot – but their first meeting was still painted vividly in her nightmares. On the other hand, though… new, unknown alphabet.

A very short war was waged in Levy's head. The 'new alphabet' faction won.

Levy backed up and took another look at Gajeel's notes. Yup, that was definitely an unfamiliar alphabet.

"Ya need something, Shorty?"

Levy blinked as she realized that Gajeel was staring at her, but she was too distracted by the almost graceful flow and dip of the new letters to feel particularly embarrassed or nervous.

"What's that written in?" she asked, gesturing to his notes.

" _Drrrakt Aye'yeen_. Old Script." He paused, his brows furrowing together. "You'd probably call it 'Draconic.'"

Levy's eyes went wide.

"You can _read and write Draconic_?"

Jet and Droy would have recognized that dangerous light shining in Levy's eyes. Gajeel didn't know her well enough.

"Can speak it, too, for the most part."

" _Can you teach me_?" Levy latched onto his arm, temporarily forgetting that this was the man who had terrorized her team and nailed her to a tree, because shiny, shiny ancient languages were incredibly distracting. It also made her entirely miss the very faint pink tint that the tips of Gajeel's ears had taken on and the slight stammer when he next spoke.

"Y-ya want me to _teach_ you?" Gajeel, unlike Levy, had _not_ temporarily forgotten about their extremely unfortunate first meeting.

"Well, yeah!" Levy chirped, beaming at him. "How else am I going to learn Draconic?"

"You actually want to learn Draconic." Gajeel sounded doubtful.

"Yes." Levy gave him her best 'I'm cute so just let me have my way' pout that always worked on Jet and Droy. Apparently it worked on Gajeel, too. She could see him starting to crack.

"I ain't ever taught anybody something before…," he trailed off. His resolve – what little there had been – was definitely wavering.

"Well, how did you learn it in the first place?"

Gajeel raised an eyebrow at her.

"Metalicana smacked me in the head with his tail every time I got something wrong. Somehow I don't think that's gonna work for you."

She ignored the sarcasm. Her priority right now was securing a new teacher to bring her one step closer to her goal.

"I guess we'll just figure it out as we go then!"

"Yeah, I suppose…."

"Great! When you get back from your job, we can start."

"Wait! What? I didn't agree-" protested Gajeel.

Levy cheerfully ignored him.

"There are some books in the guild library that I think are written in Draconic – maybe we could start with those."

Gajeel sagged slightly in the face of her enthusiasm.

"Ah, hell, why not? We can start when I get back from this job."

"Wonderful!"

Gajeel shook his head and stood up. He stuffed the flyer in his pocket. Levy was sad to see the unfamiliar letters disappear but was buoyed by the promise that they would return.

"Well, _serreik rae, kyleem._ " Gajeel shot Levy a grin that suddenly made him appear younger and a little friendlier.

"What does that mean?"

"It means, 'see ya, shorty.'" And Gajeel turned to leave, giving Levy a half wave over his shoulder as he went. Several members of the guild who had been within hearing rang stared after him incredulously.

"Did metalhead just call Levy ' _kyleem_ '?" Natsu asked as the guildhall doors closed behind Gajeel. He sounded surprised. "Why's he throwing around terms of endearment?"

"How should I know?" grumbled Gray, who was sitting next to him.

But Levy wasn't paying attention to them.

Levy was floating on a happy cloud of new language. Later she would probably be embarrassed and possibly a little bit mortified by her actions and the fact that she was going to be spending extended periods of time with _Gajeel_ of all people. Jet and Droy were definitely going to pitch a fit. But for now Levy basked in the magic of new letters and words. Hopefully Gajeel's job wouldn't take him the whole week that the flyer had estimated, because Levy couldn't wait to get started.

* * *

 _A/N: Dragons having their own culture is one of my favorite Fairy Tail headcanons and definitely has nothing to do with my degree in anthropology. Totally._


	21. A Sun on the Ceiling

_Chapter 21: A Sun on the Ceiling_

* * *

Juvia was having an excellent day. She had managed to hug Gray three times, and the last time he hadn't instantly shoved her off! That must mean that he had feelings for her, too! And she was going on a job tomorrow with Cana. They had been talking more since Freed had caught them in that rune trap. Juvia hadn't really had any female friends in a long time. Phantom Lord hadn't been a place to foster friendships – only tentative alliances. The fact that she and Gajeel had managed to become friends anyway was fairly shocking. Fairy Tail was a much warmer guild.

She hummed happily to herself and turned down a side alley that was her preferred shortcut to Fairy Hills. Spending time away from her beloved Gray was always hard but unfortunately being able to pay her rent was important.

"I think it's time we had a talk."

And Juvia's day abruptly went from excellent to very, very bad, because being trapped up to the neck in a block of ice was never a good way to start a conversation. The ice block itself was shaped like a giant rosebud. Ultear Milkovich was standing in front of her, arms crossed, exuding that quiet, simmering rage that sent her friends and foes alike running and shrieking in terror. It was not a look at that Juvia had ever wanted to be on the receiving end of.

"U-Ultear! Has Juvia done something to upset you?" Juvia quavered. The only reason Erza was generally considered scarier than Ultear was because Ultear's temper had a much longer fuse.

"That's a loaded question." Ultear's hands moved to her hips. "You know, I like you, Juvia. You're a nice person, and you're trying to atone for what you did in Phantom Lord. That's pretty admirable. But I think it's long past time the two of us had a conversation about stalking and the meaning of the word _no_."

"Juvia doesn't understand."

"I already figured that much. Gray is my little brother, and you are making him _intensely_ uncomfortable."

"But Juvia loves-"

"I don't care if you love him – you are _stalking_ him. It doesn't matter how you feel about someone, stalking them is never appropriate. And besides, how can you say that you love him? You barely even _know_ him. If you'd ever bothered to sit down and _talk_ to him, you'd know that Gray hates people touching him."

Juvia felt her eyes begin to well with tears.

"Juvia is not a stalker! Gray is just slow to realize his feelings!"

"You can't _force_ someone to love you. That's why he practically runs away every time he sees you. And don't think I missed what you were up to with that accidentally potion-ing the whole guild thing. If that had actually _worked_ , it would have been tantamount to you _mentally_ _raping him_ ," Ultear snarled.

"No! Juvia would never-"

"But you _tried_. That was cruel and incredibly selfish. There's a reason love potions are illegal. The only person you were think about when you bought that potion was _you_."

Juvia felt like she was going to be sick. She remembered another time. Hands on her throat. A drunken man who wouldn't take no for an answer. Thank god her body was made of water. She'd felt so helpless even after she all but sliced the man's hand off. Had she- Had she really nearly gone that far?

Tears were running freely down her face now.

"But… Gray made the rain stop."

Ultear's expression softened but only slightly.

"I'm glad that happened for you. But that still doesn't make what you're doing alright. The only thing you're in love with at the moment is a fantasy of Gray. I can guarantee you that that fantasy is almost nothing like the real person. At this point in his life, I don't think Gray is even emotionally ready to handle a romantic relationship. You want to be close to Gray? Try just being his _friend_ instead of drugging him. Maybe someday he'll return your affection, maybe he won't, but it will never happen at all if you don't get to know him as a person. Or if you steal his ability to decide for himself. Who knows? Maybe you'll like the real person better than the fantasy."

"You think so?" Juvia asked quietly.

Ultear shrugged.

"He's my brother – my opinion is inherently biased." She paused. "But I do know that he could use some more friends in his life."

"Juvia- Juvia will think about what Ultear has said."

"Good." Ultear turned and started to walk away, then stopped. "And just so you know, if you continue to throw yourself at him anyway, I will freeze your body solid and then use time magic to disintegrate all of your clothes in front of the entire guild." She glanced back over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow, "Nobody messes with my little brothers." Then she sashayed away.

A few minutes after Ultear had left, the ice rose holding Juvia hostage burst apart in a shower of sparkling crystals. Juvia stood still for a few moments, staring into middle space. She had to think about this.

Juvia spent several hours pacing around Magnolia as the sky grew darker and darker, thinking over Ultear's words and her own actions. She didn't really want to believe that her actions could be considered stalking, but she also liked the idea of Gray not constantly shoving her away. It was no use. She needed outside input. Someone who would be totally unbiased about the situation and be able to set her straight.

There was really only one person she could turn to.

The door was answered on the third knock.

"For fuck's sake, Juvia, do you know what time it-"

"Has Juvia been stalking Gray?" she interrupted.

Gajeel blinked at her owlishly. He was wearing that dazed expression that he generally got when he had just woken up.

"Yes. It's pretty damn creepy. I still can't believe you made a _doll_ of the guy." Juvia felt her lower lip begin to quiver. "What happened? Did he finally put in for a restraining order or something?"

Juvia burst into tears and flung herself at Gajeel. He let out an indignant squawk.

"Juvia doesn't want to be a stalker! She just wants Gray to love her back!"

Gajeel let out a longsuffering sigh and pulled her inside so that he could close the door.

"Come on – I'll make some of that awful tea you like."

"What is Juvia going to do, Gajee?"

"Juvia is going to calm down and stop calling me 'Gajee.'" Gajeel managed to pry Juvia loose from his waist and plunked her down in one of the two mismatched chairs in his kitchen. The second chair existed solely for Juvia's benefit. She was the only person who ever visited him, and he'd gotten tired of her either perching on his counter or stealing his seat. Juvia politely never mentioned that the chipped paint of the second chair was blue, and that he knew blue was her favorite color.

Juvia was only sniffing occasionally by the time a mug of tea was clanked down in front of her. Gajeel claimed that she had left the tin of tea at his house once. Juvia knew he had actually bought it himself. She smiled down into her tea. Gajeel could be thoughtful in the strangest ways sometimes. He was a good friend.

Would Gray like someone like that? Someone who made him his favorite drink when he was down and kept an extra chair in their kitchen for when he visited? Juvia didn't know, but she thought that everyone deserved a friend like that. And the more she thought, the more she realized that she honestly _didn't_ know what Gray would like. Did he prefer tea or coffee? Sweet or savory? What was his favorite color? She knew that Gray and the rest of the Ice Djinn Trio had been taught by Ur Milkovich and that the woman wasn't around anymore, but what had happened to her? Was she dead? Was Gray still grieving for her? What had happened to his parents? How had he even joined Fairy Tail in the first place?

A friend would have known more of those answers than she did. It was… humbling. No wonder Ultear had been so upset with her.

"Gajeel, Juvia wants to be Gray's friend."

Gajeel paused, the piece of iron he'd been snacking on halfway to his mouth.

"Well, that's different. I thought you just wanted to get into his pants."

Juvia smacked him.

"Juvia _loves_ Gray."

"Uh huh." Gajeel's expression was totally unrepentant.

"How does Juvia become Gray's friend?"

Gajeel gave her a long stare.

"You're honestly asking me this. _Me_."

"Gajeel became friends with Juvia."

"That was mostly by accident. You should really be asking someone else about this." Juvia pouted at him in a way that generally bent him to her will. "I dunno. Maybe try talking _to_ him instead of _at_ him and stop simpering so much. You were part of the Element Four, have some dignity for fuck's sake. Or," Gajeel hesitated, and Juvia was surprised to realize that he looked embarrassed and uncomfortable, "you could try talking to Shor- Levy. Her fashion accessories are male and she's friends with them. And she's been at the guild quite a while. She might have some suggestions."

The tips of his ears were tinted ever so slightly red. Juvia raised an eyebrow and stored this observation away as something to tease Gajeel about later when he wasn't being so helpful. Another thought occurred to her.

"But what about Juvia's love rival?!"

"What love rival?"

"Lucy."

Gajeel actually burst out laughing. Juvia pouted at him again, but this time it didn't have any effect.

"She's not interested in him. At _all_. Loke, maybe Salamander, but definitely not the stripper. Dragon slayer senses don't lie." He tapped the side of his nose. "Bunny girl is just one of the naturally friendly ones."

"Oh." That was nice. Juvia liked Lucy well enough as long as she wasn't trying to steal Gray away from her. "Perhaps Lucy could help Juvia as well?"

Gajeel shrugged.

"You'd have to ask her – having a good nose doesn't mean I'm psychic. I guess you could always try getting to know his siblings better, too."

"Juvia hadn't thought of that. Lyon is very polite."

"Juvia doesn't think of a lot of things," Gajeel grumbled under his breath.

Juvia kicked him hard in the shin and sipped her tea. She had a lot to think about, but she rather liked the new dream that was starting to form in her head. A kitchen with mismatched chairs. Not just one for Gray, but maybe ones for Cana and Gajeel and Lyon as well. A place where friends could talk or just share silence. A sky blue ceiling with a sun painted in the middle so that even on the days when it rained, she would still be able to see the sky. She could picture it all so easily. And for once, her mind's eye didn't add sparkles or roses or a wash of pink or make Gray's eyes wider than they really were. For once it felt… real. Feasible. Attainable. Like something she could really have instead of the fantasy she'd been chasing these last few months. The idea of just being able to sit with Gray and talk to him was… surprisingly nice. She smiled.

It was a start.

* * *

 _A/N: I'm still on the fence about pairings, but at the very least I do want Juvia to be friends with Gray and the rest of the Ice Djinn Trio._

 ** _Guest_** _\- I hadn't thought of that, but you're right! Now that the Thunder Legion are interacting with the rest of the guild, Freed and Levy are definitely going to be swapping language notes!_

 ** _Celt_** _\- Thank you so much! I'm really glad you're enjoying it!_


	22. Inverse

_A/N: Sorry for the delay! Real life blew up in my face again and burnt off my eyebrows. Thank you for your patience!_

* * *

 _Chapter 22: Inverse_

* * *

One minute Erik was sitting at the guildhall's bar with Cubelios's chin resting on his shoulder. The next he was waking up buried in something that felt like… flour? Erik clawed frantically at the fine, cool powder surrounding him as the pressing need to _breathe_ made itself known. Seconds later his hands met cold night air and his head broke free. He heaved in a deep, gasping lungful of oxygen. A pair of sandaled feet were standing not very far anyway from him. Mystogan was staring down at him in surprise.

"A little help here?" Erik croaked when Mystogan didn't move.

"I didn't realize there was anyone else left." Mystogan offered Erik a hand and hauled him to his feet. Erik shook his hair and sent white powder flying. Whatever the stuff was, it made his skin feel dry and unpleasantly tingly. Everything seemed unnaturally quiet. Erik could hear Mystogan's heartbeat as well as his own but that was-

Oh no. Panic surged.

"Where's Cubelios?" Erik demanded. "Where's the rest of the _guild_?! _WHERE'S CUBELIOS?!_ " Erik's hands fisted in the front of Mystogan's tunic and dragged him down so that they were at eye level.

"Taken- Anima- I was too late-" If he'd been in any frame of mind to comprehend it, Erik would have noted the unusually panicked look on Mystogan's normally unflappable face. Unfortunately for Mystogan, Cubelios was missing, and Erik really didn't care about anything else. The front of Mystogan's tunic now had holes in it where Erik's unintentionally summoned talons had shredded through the fabric.

"What do you mean _taken_?!" Erik snarled. Rationality had officially left the building.

"There a reason Magnolia is gone and you're tryin' to murder Ferandes's twin?" interrupted a new voice before Erik could actually wrap his hands around Mystogan's neck. Gajeel looked rumpled, annoyed, and had cat scratches on his face for some reason.

Mystogan looked equally surprised by Gajeel's arrival,

"How many people did I _miss_?!" he squawked and then made a gurgling sound as Erik took advantage of his distraction and grabbed him by the neck. Rough hands pried Erik's fingers loose, and Erik was lifted into the air by the back of his jacket. He thrashed and made a few more swipes at Mystogan.

"Calm down. He can't answer questions if you kill him." It was probably a bad sign that Gajeel was being the reasonable one.

* * *

There were rivers in the sky and floating mountains. The vegetation was like some bizarre sort of jungle. Cubelios would have loved it. Erik firmly squashed that thought down.

Gajeel was staring speculatively up at the floating mountains with an expression disturbingly similar to Natsu's 'yeah, I could break that' face. Erik rolled his eyes.

* * *

"You need to forget about the cat thing," Erik grumbled. He'd finally gotten his hands on a tin of rat poison and was busy stirring a heaping spoonful into his coffee. He and Gajeel had managed to lay their hands on some food at long last. Erik was willing to do almost anything to combat the fierce ache of emptiness in his chest that Cubelios normally filled – even talk about Gajeel's dumb cat obsession.

Gajeel scowled fiercely at him,

"The other dragon slayers all have them."

Erik scowled right back at him,

"I don't."

"Yeah, but you've got that flyin' snake."

"Her name is _Cubelios_." Erik took a deep breath and reminded himself that he still needed Gajeel's brute strength to get Cubelios back. Besides, they were guildmates. "Laxus doesn't have any animal companions."

Gajeel raised an eyebrow at him and smirked,

"Then what do _you_ call the Thunder Legion?"

Erik paused, coffee mug halfway to his mouth, and considered this. That was actually a fairly good point. When they were younger, Master Makarov used to refer to Freed, Evergreen, and Bickslow as 'Laxus's Strays.'

Then his ears caught a stray thought from Gajeel.

"You just want to one-up Natsu."

Gajeel's fearsome scowl returned, but it was too late – Erik was already laughing at him.

* * *

There were now two Gajeels. Two Gajeels that were convinced that they were practically twins when it was clear that they were both just plain delusional.

"Wait, I knew I recognized your face," short-haired Gajeel was frowning thoughtfully at Erik now. "You're Erik Dorov. You're a Fairy Tail wizard!"

"Actually, it's Erik Zmeya."

"Well, either way, you're going to want to keep your head down unless you want Knightwalker chopping it off. The king's really been cracking down on the dark guilds."

"I beg your pardon?"

* * *

When this was all over, Erik was going to kill Gajeel slowly. Painfully. By inches.

Another Poison Dragon Roar failed to do much of anything.

"Oh, _for the love of-!_ GAJEEL! _You_ are the iron dragon slayer! Your specialty is _hitting things_! Stop fighting that damn giant cat that I could have knocked out in thirty seconds with one poison attack if you had let me, and _COME PUNCH THIS STUPID LACRIMA ALREADY!_ "

Erik tried clawing at the lacrima. It did the exact amount of nothing that he had anticipated.

"Busy! Need to make him my cat!" Gajeel shouted back. His expression, though, said that he was having way too much fun brawling to stop any time soon.

Erik let out a snarl of frustration and tried another poison dragon roar. A teeny portion of the lacrima began to glitter. At _last_. It was finally work-

Erik gaped.

Well, they had said that _everything_ in Earthland was imbued with magic.

"GODS DAMN IT!" Erik punted the barstool off the side of the floating island. When this was over, Gajeel was definitely dead.

* * *

Erik tied the cape around his shoulders and then glared at the fake horns Natsu was struggling to put on.

"This is dumb, and it's never going to work." He wasn't bitter that he'd been knocked unconscious during the epic quadruple dragon slayer final showdown with the king. Not at all. And besides, the horns _were_ ridiculous.

"Nah, it's gonna be great!" Natsu beamed. "And besides, we can't let Mystogan take the fall! He's a Fairy Tail wizard!"

Erik half-smiled and then sighed and fixed Natsu's horns in one deft move.

"Yeah. I guess you're right." He'd always been closer to Erza, Simon, and Jellal than Mystogan, but he'd still been a little bit like a big brother to Erik, and if Natsu's dumb plan worked, then his heart would rest a little easier when they left.

"I'm not sure how good I'm going to be at this," Wendy admitted, fiddling with the edge of her cape.

"Just make an evil face and break a few things, and they'll run crying," shrugged Gajeel and then demonstrated a truly evil face. Nobody could do 'deranged' quite like Gajeel. "These people are wimps."

* * *

The pull of Anima returning them to Earthland felt almost as strange as floating above the ground with nothing to hold him there. And Erik was glowing gold. His skin felt like it was buzzing.

"Say goodbye to Jellal, Erza, and Simon for me," Mystogan murmured as he stared up at the rising Earthlanders and Exceeds, his voice so quiet that only Erik's sensitive ears could have ever caught it. Erik caught Mystogan's eye far below him and gave him a nod and a small salute. He would pass the word along. It was the least he could do.

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

 _Whamwhamwham! Whamwhamwhamwhamwhamwham!_

Erik landed in a wet heap on top of Erza. Bits of broken barstool rained painfully down on his head.

" _Ow_."

Erik blinked, slightly dazed, and then yelped as the mound of Fairy Tail wizards shifted, and he was unceremoniously rolled onto the ground. Mud squelched under his back. Ugh.

"We're back!" cheered Natsu.

He was right. Erik pulled himself up, clutching a piece of barstool in one hand, and there was Magnolia spread out below them. It looked as pristine and untouched as if nothing had ever happened.

"Everything's back to the way it was!" Lucy beamed.

"Hold on," Erza cautioned. "We don't know that everything is all right and where it should be for certain. We can't even see the people from up here. It's too soon to celebrate."

"They're all fine!" announced a high voice. "We've already been in Earthland a little while and checked up on everyone! They're all fine!"

Erik allowed himself two seconds to gape at the flock of Exceeds and wonder what they were doing there and then to decide that he honestly didn't care and book it down the hill towards the guildhall.

"No, wait! Erik, come back!" shouted Erza. Erik ignored her. He was going to make sure that Cubelios was fine for _himself_.

"Hey! Gray! Not you, too!" yelped Lucy.

"Fill me in on the details later! I need to check on Ultear and Lyon!"

Erik slid and skittered through the wet streets. He was running just a little too fast to corner safely in this weather. Gray was hot on his heels.

By the time Erik slammed open the guildhall doors, he was wheezing for breath and his face was bright red. He was in good shape, but he'd basically sprinted the entire way across town. As was often the case in Fairy Tail, everyone ignored the dramatic, door-slamming entrance in favor of an imminent brawl.

"Seriously!" Canna was standing on the bar, hands on hips, looking pissed as hell. " _Who stole my stool?!_ You made me spill my BEER! Fess up and I might not permanently break your face!"

Erik glanced at the broken stool leg in his hand and quickly hid it behind his back.

"Gray!" Ultear waved from across the hall. Lyon was sitting next to her drinking tea out of a fancy china cup. "Where'd you go? You just disappeared all of a sudden! We were starting to get worried!"

"Getting sucked into an alternate dimension does that-"

Erik was distracted from Gray's explanation of what had happened by being body slammed by one hundred and fifty pounds of upset Cubelios. He hit the floor with a _thuck_ and grinned as Cubelios proceeded to sniff every inch of him and hiss in concern.

It was good to be home.


	23. Clan

_A/N: I know some people are a bit disappointed that there wasn't more to the Edolas arc, but I've been banging my head against my keyboard for quite a while now and the inspiration just isn't there at the moment. When the inspiration runs dry, you get terribly boring chapters. Hopefully, the inspiration will show up in the near future and I can just go back and add a chapter. Until then - onward!  
_

 _Also, THANK YOU TO MY ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS!_

* * *

 _Chapter 23: Clan_

* * *

Jellal wasn't stupid. He had known from the beginning that Mystogan wasn't actually his twin brother, but it had been nice to pretend. Nice to look up sometimes and see another face that was marked as clan, as family.

Clan marks were rare in Fiore. It was an old and dying tradition, but then Jellal's family had come from a very traditional village. Clan marks were like guild marks, but they were always worn on the face and each clan member's mark was placed in the same location. In the Fernandes clan, any child who survived to the age of four received a clan mark. Jellal couldn't remember his parents' faces, but he remembered their proud smiles when he had been marked, and he remembered the matching marks that they bore. He'd grown up surrounded by faces marked with belonging.

Even though his clan was dead, Jellal's eyes still automatically scanned faces in crowds for a familiar clan mark – for family. It had been… such a relief to meet Mystogan. To finally see another face with family and belonging streaked over his right eye. Jellal was smart. He had been an only child – his village had been destroyed before he had the chance to become an older brother. He knew there was no secret identical twin for him to stumble across, but he didn't care. His eyes had seen 'family.' So he had grabbed ahold of Mystogan and called him his brother, because that's what the mark on his face _meant_. Mystogan had looked surprised and confused, but he had gone with it. Erza and Simon had simply accepted Jellal's assessment, because they trusted him. Simon was still looking for his sister after all – no one knew if she had survived Rosemary's destruction.

Jellal rarely saw Mystogan. His adoptive twin was almost always on the road. They got along well, though. They had played a few pranks on the locals and older guild members when they were younger. Only Simon and Erza could ever easily tell them apart. Jellal had a picture of all four of them together plus a reluctant Erik from a Fantasia Parade a few years ago.

Every time he saw Mystogan something old and deep-rooted inside of him relaxed and whispered _clan_.

And now he was gone, and Jellal hadn't even been able to say goodbye. Erza had told him and Simon all about Edolas, and Erik had passed on Mystogan's final words of farewell. Finding out that Mystogan was actually an alternate version of himself really hadn't been all that surprising. It made sense. The only thing that had really differentiated them had been their speech patterns and scars. Not even real identical twins were than identical. The loss still ached.

Jellal put down his book with a sigh. He couldn't focus. He'd read the same paragraph four times now, and he still had no idea what it had said. It had been two days since the guild had celebrated Lisanna's return from the dead and Erza had told him that Mystogan was gone. Two days since the last person marked as 'clan' disappeared from his life. Jellal ran a hand through his hair.

He was being so _childish_. He had Simon and Erza. A whole guild full of friends. The loss of one man who shared his face shouldn't upset him so much. But then, by now Jellal really should know better than to rely on logic when it came to grief. It never worked out well.

"You're allowed to be upset, you know."

Jellal jerked his head up guiltily. He hadn't heard Erik sit down.

"Pardon?"

"You're allowed to be upset about Mystogan." Erik scratched under Cubelios's chin, carefully not looking him in the eye. "I'm going to miss him, too."

Jellal glance over at the bar where Mirajane had carefully positioned Lisanna so that she would be able to keep an eye on her from almost anywhere in the guildhall.

"It seems… selfish to be depressed right now."

"Grieving is only ever selfish if you allow it to consume you, body and soul."

Jellal glanced sideways. Erik was still pointedly not looking at him.

"When did you get so philosophical?" The only answer he received this time was a shrug. Erik was apparently done dispensing wisdom for the day.

Silence stretched between them. Cubelios, seemingly sensing the mood, pushed her snout against Jellal's arm and then rested her chin on his shoulder. Jellal recognized it as a gesture of comfort normally reserved for Erik. He rubbed one of her eye ridges in thanks. A few more minutes past.

"Okay, no." Erik grabbed him by the back of the collar and started dragging Jellal towards the doors.

"What?!" Jellal yelped.

"You can't properly grieve when you're surrounded by happy people. It just doesn't work," grumbled Erik, not loosening his hold on the back of Jellal's coat.

"At least, let me take my book!"

"You weren't actually reading that anyway."

It was really annoying that Erik was right.

Outside was bright and sunny, but it had three less Strauss siblings than the inside of the guildhall. It shouldn't have been as much of a relief as it was. Erik seemed to be dragging him away from Fairy Tail grounds entirely.

"I'm supposed to be meeting Erza and Simon," Jellal protested weakly, but his heart wasn't really in it.

"Alright then." Erik slowed and raised his voice, "Hey, Droy! When Simon and Erza get here, tell them I took Jellal over to the central park!" Droy gave a nod and a thumbs up. "There – problem solved."

Jellal gave up protesting after that. Erik dumped him under the massive tree that still bore the scars of Gajeel's iron spikes and then settled between the roots next to him. Cubelios draped her massive head across Erik's lap, looking for affection. The breeze rustled their hair. Neither of them spoke.

Jellal leaned his head back against the rough bark, closed his eyes, and let himself remember. It was so much less painful than trying to lock all the hurt away at the back of his mind.

Time past. Jellal didn't know how much.

"So this is where you've been hiding."

Jellal blinked open his eyes and looked up….

 _Clan_.

Erza and Simon were smiling down at him, each with family and belonging streaked over their right eye. Jellal gaped at them. Something very small and young inside of him unfurled and reached out. He stretched out, pulled Erza down, and gently traced the swirls of deep red on her cheek. He'd never been able to articulate his need for 'clan' to them very well. It was hard to explain to people who hadn't grown up with it. But maybe… maybe they had understood better than he had thought.

"It's henna," Erza explained. She was studying his face carefully, making certain that they hadn't unintentionally upset him.

"You're ours, and we're yours," Simon continued. He crouched down next to Erza. "I don't see why we shouldn't have that written on our faces sometimes."

Erza nodded, firm and solemn.

Jellal could feel the tears gathering in his eyes, and he honestly didn't care. He latched onto Erza and Simon and simply let himself cry. The combination of gratitude, happiness, and grief was simply too overwhelming.

" _Thank you_."


	24. Terrible Taste in Men

_Chapter 24: Terrible Taste in Men_

* * *

For once Lucy wasn't in the bath or the middle of working on her novel when someone started pounding on her door. It was a pleasant change. For a second she wondered if it was one of her teammates, and then she remembered that her teammates never knocked – they just broke into her house. That left only one likely option.

"Hi Levy!" Lucy paused, taking in her friend's less than happy expression. "Is everything alright?"

Levy ran a hand through her hair and sighed.

"Not really. Do you mind if I come in? I know it's kind of late…."

"No, it's fine. I hadn't even started to think about getting ready for bed, yet." Lucy stood to one side to let Levy through. "I was going to make hot chocolate – want some?" That was a lie, but Lucy often found that chocolate made things better.

"Yes, please."

Ten minutes later they were both seated at Lucy's kitchen table. Levy was staring into her mug of hot chocolate as if it held all the secrets of the universe. She still hadn't said anymore about why she was there.

"So what happened?" Lucy finally asked.

Levy's mouth twisted to one side.

"I just realized I have terrible taste in men." She pushed away her untouched hot chocolate and rested her head on her arms.

"How so?" Levy mumbled something, but Lucy couldn't make out what she had said. "What was that?"

Levy lifted her head slightly and gave her a doleful look.

"I have a crush on Gajeel."

Lucy was really glad that she had already swallowed.

" _Gajeel?!_ "

"Yeah, I know." Levy let her head fall back against her arms. "I just realized what was going on."

"But… why?" Lucy couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Have you seen his arms? Those are good arms."

"Lev, the guy beat you and your boys to a pulp and nailed you to a tree. There's got to be more to it than that."

Levy let out another gusty sigh.

"Yeah," she finally admitted, "I know that. It's just… he's changed so much. Have you seen him with Pantherlily? That is _not_ the same guy who attacked me. He's… he's kind of sweet, in his own way."

"Gajeel is many things, but sweet is definitely not one of them."

"And, um…," Levy hesitated, blushing fiercely, "hecanreadandspeakDraconic."

"Pardon?"

"He can read and speak Draconic," Levy repeated more slowly, her entire face now bright crimson. "It's hot."

Lucy couldn't help herself – she burst out laughing.

"And the truth comes out!" she teased. "You're just interested in him for his knowledge of an extinct language."

"I am not!" Levy retorted hotly, her face scrunching up in embarrassment and irritation. She gave Lucy's arm a smack. Then her face fell. "This would be so much easier if I'd just fallen for Jet or Droy like everyone was expecting me to."

Lucy reached over and rubbed her friend's shoulder.

"Everybody gets inappropriate crushes sometimes. It'll pass." At least, Lucy hoped it would. Gajeel had changed a lot since he had joined Fairy Tail, but well… he still came off as kind of untrustworthy. Like he might still be dabbling in the darker side of things.

"You know, Juvia told me once that in Phantom Lord they were actively encouraged to fight amongst themselves? The more brutal you were, the better you were rewarded. Master Jose thought it was a good way to weed out weaklings."

This time Lucy actually _did_ choke on her hot chocolate.

" _Seriously?_ " Lucy had never been so grateful that she had joined Fairy Tail instead of Phantom Lord.

"It doesn't excuse what they did, but… it does make it make more sense. And I do think he's genuinely sorry for what happened." Levy let her head fall back onto her arms again. "This is so messed up."

"You're right, Lev. You really do have awful taste in men, but I suppose it could always be worse."

"How?" Levy asked, lifting her head and eyeing Lucy cautiously.

"Well, you could have a crush on Ichiya from Blue Pegasus."

"That is the most horrific thing I have ever heard you say."

"It really makes Gajeel sound like a much better option, though, doesn't it?"

"I kind of hate you right now." But Levy was laughing, and that was the important thing. When she stopped laughing, Levy finally took a sip of the hot chocolate that had been sitting by her elbow. "Thanks, Lu."

"Your welcome. What else are best friends for? Though… don't you have a job tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I should probably be heading home. Thanks again for listening. It helped."

"Any time."

Lucy stood in the doorway and watched Levy's small form disappear down the darkened street.

Gajeel, huh? Oh, boy.

Hopefully it would just turn out to be a passing fancy for Levy, but… somehow Lucy had a feeling that that wasn't going to be the case.

* * *

Levy hesitated about halfway down the street and glanced back at Lucy's apartment door. Maybe she should have told her all of it – not just about the inappropriate crush part. She could trust Lucy, but-

But if she was right, it could be dangerous.

Levy was smart and observant. She listened and paid attention and her brain treated everything like a puzzle – it never stopped putting pieces together. She'd spent an awful lot of time over the past eight or nine weeks with Gajeel as he muddled his way through teaching her Draconic. Levy had noticed things.

She was almost certain that Gajeel was a spy. The part she hadn't figured out, yet, was a spy for _who_. Was Gajeel working for Master Makarov or someone else? She wasn't sure.

Honestly, it just made the realization of her crush a million times worse. What if Gajeel turned out to still be the enemy? Could he really fake such a significant shift in his character?

Levy bit her lip and turned once more towards home.

If Gajeel was spying for Master Makarov, then telling Lucy her suspicions could potentiality put him in danger. If he was spying for someone else, telling Lucy could put _Lucy_ in danger. Either way, for the moment it was best if Levy just kept this to herself.

* * *

On top of a hill overlooking Magnolia, Gajeel leaned against a tree as the annoying paper doll yammered away at him. In the dark, Magnolia look like a sea of stars.

" _And you're sure they trust you?"_

"Yeah, I told you – even those Shadowgear idiots are warmin' up to me."

" _Good. That's excellent news. Are you heading out on another job soon?"_

"Me an' the cat are heading to a place near the capitol tomorrow morning. Think it's called Verbena. Why?"

" _I have some new… information to discuss with you. It must be done in person."_

"Whatever ya say, Master Ivan," Gajeel sneered.

" _I shall meet you in three days."_

Without ceremony the paper doll whisked away into the darkness. Gajeel watched it go, his earlier sneer melting into a frown of concern.

* * *

 _A/N: I think it's about time we threw a wrench in the works, don't you?  
_

 _Thank you to my guest reviewers! You are wonderful and appreciated!_


	25. Volcano Day

_A/N: Shout out to AmmyChey3X and Crimsonlink310, my only two reviewers last chapter! You are both fantastic and the reason this chapter is being posted today instead of next week when I get home from my trip abroad.  
_

 _And now let's... shake things up a bit..._

* * *

 _Chapter 25: **Volcano Day**_

* * *

 _There is always a moment before every disaster when the world holds its breath and the earth quakes in fear waiting for the volcano to erupt…._

"God damn it, Gajeel! Who was that? _What the hell is going on?!_ "

"I need you to take a message back to the old man."

"Not until –"

"Fucking hell, Lily – _there's no time!_ Ivan is gonna be back here any minute expecting to see your bloody, mangled corpse! Get back to the guild, and tell Makarov that Raven Tail is mounting its attack! He has less than two days until Ivan burns Magnolia to the ground! Now hurry up and _go!_ "

"But what are you –"

"Just _**go**_ _!_ "

 _But no matter how the world trembles in fear or what is done to prepare…_

"Everyone who's not fit to fight help with the evacuation! We are leaving nothing to chance!"

… _volcano day always comes._

* * *

Magnolia was burning. Just the first few houses on the outskirts of the city were alight, but the fire was spreading rapidly with no one to reign it in.

There were two lines of wizards. Fairy Tail on one side, Raven Tail on the other. Father and son at the center of their respective lines, staring each other down, waiting to see who would make the next move. Ivan Dreyar was smirking, and standing to his right, arms folded was…

"Gajeel Redfox, you traitorous bastard," Cana snarled.

Gajeel sneered at her,

"What can I say? I know how to pick the winning side." And for a flicker of a moment his expression changed into something more mischievous. Then his left arm was extending into an iron pole and smashing into Ivan's gut.

"WHAT THE–?!" screeched a Raven Tail wizard.

"IRON DRAGON ROAR!" A good chunk of the dark wizards were tossed into the air like leaves.

"Redfox, you son of a bitch! How could you?!"

Gajeel gave the dark wizard a smile that was all teeth and no kindness and kicked him hard enough in the chest to send him flying.

"'Cause I'm a Fairy Tail wizard, you jackass!" Gajeel roared after him. He glanced over his shoulder at Makarov. "Ivan has the rest of the guild flanking you from the east. He's after something called-"

Five more angry Raven Tail wizards tackled Gajeel at once and he disappeared beneath them in a flurry of fists and metal.

The world descended into chaos.

* * *

Jellal's feet scrambled for purchase on the rubble that was all that remained of Erza's favorite bakery. She was going to be so pissed when this was over. This place made the best strawberry cheesecake.

He had to focus. All this fire and these destroyed buildings were messing with his head. Jellal had always been more prone to flashbacks than Erza or Simon. He could almost see the Tower guards opening their mouths to fire.

A blast of razor sharp air sliced across his bicep. Damn it! Focus, focus! He had to focus! Jellal re-centered himself, sent a jolt of magic to his feet, and shot forward in a burst of starlight. His attacker didn't even have time to dodge.

* * *

"OPEN, GATE OF THE LION! LEO!" This was live or die, and Lucy intended to start with her best foot forward.

* * *

Honestly, an electricity maker. Erza requipped into her thunder empress armor. The bastard never stood a chance.

* * *

"NO! _**MASTER!**_ "

* * *

" _GRAY! LYON!_ "

"Aw, does this make you mad?" The woman swayed back and forth, a lazy smirk twisting up her mouth. "This is just pathetic, really. I thought you were supposed to be the S-class wizard of the Ice Djinn Trio, and yet here you are gone all to pieces. I expected more of a challenge – how disappointing."

The massive glass-rock hands holding Gray and Lyon captive tightened slightly at the tiny flick of the woman's wrist. Ultear heard a bone snap. Gray was still kicking feebly. Lyon had stopped struggling several minutes ago, and now his lips were starting to turn blue. And there wasn't a damn thing she could do. None of her ice magic was working. It slid off the woman's rock spells like slush.

"Oh, this is just _dull_ ," the woman whined. "Someone really _ought_ to be screaming." The hand around Gray tightened further. Ultear heard another bone snap, and he shrieked in pain.

Her hands were starting to shake. She could see the see snow, feel the demon's screams shake the ground, taste the ash in the air, hear her mother's voice…

 _I'll always love you with all my heart, Ultear. Please, take care of your brothers for me._

 _Of course I will, just please don't leave me!_

 _I'll never really leave you._

 _Take care of your brothers for me…._

 _Take care of your brothers…._

Ultear had never been so angry in her entire life.

"I made a promise!" She could feel the power swelling up beneath her feet and in the air around her. The blood red magic circle that flared under her feet was nearly twenty feet across. Distantly, Ultear wondered if this was how Mira had felt when she reawakened her Satan soul. The air throbbed with magic. " _I MADE A PROMISE TO MY MOTHER, AND YOU WILL NOT MAKE ME BREAK IT!_ "

And then suddenly Ultear could see _everything_. Every particle of rock. Every past, present, and future it could possibly have. She dug in with magical fingers and _tore_.

"All rock becomes sand!" The two glassy hands burst into pieces, but Ultear was already moving before Gray or Lyon could fall. "Ice make: slides!" The boys slid to safety several feet behind her. "Before rock was born it was magma!"

The woman screamed as the lava which had once been her creations came crashing down on her head, and she was consumed.

There was a soft wheeze from behind her.

"That was… pretty freaking scary. Never seen you do anything that big with time magic before." Hearing Gray's voice was a relief.

"Didn't think that I could." Ultear sank to her knees as the magic drained out of her in a rush. Slowly, she dragged herself over to check on Lyon. If Gray was talking, then he could wait. Lyon was breathing again, small, ragged breaths, but he was still unconscious. She ran a hand through his snowy hair.

"Think she's dead?" Gray murmured. He hadn't even tried to sit up. It was telling.

"I doubt it. Dark wizards are like cockroaches." Ultear collapsed onto her back and stared up at the remains of the cathedral's ceiling. She grasped Lyon's wrist and reached out for Gray's as well. Both their pulses beat strong beneath her fingers.

She had kept her promise.

* * *

"FIRE DRAGON ROAR!"

"For fuck's sake, Natsu! At least _try_ to aim!"

* * *

Laxus stood on the edge of East Forest and stared at the flames. Screw being banished from the guild – like _hell_ was he going to stand back and watch Magnolia burn.

* * *

It was a trap. Bickslow knew it was a trap, but he'd come to that realization just a fraction of a second too late.

The Thunder Legion had been expertly split up. They made an excellent team, but Ivan Dreyar had planned specifically for his son's team. Bickslow was cornered in an alley, and his babies… his poor babies were suspended in a sphere of green goop that was stopping him from moving them into different containers. The alley was just wide enough that he couldn't use his acrobatic tricks to make a bid for freedom. Damn it.

Nothing for it – figure eyes it was.

Bickslow reached for his visor.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you. Poison make: mist."

Bickslow screamed. His eyes burned. The world went black.

* * *

The damage didn't look any better from the air. Erik closed his eyes and _listened_. The Council's armed forces were on their way but still far off. Too far. Damn it. Master Makarov was severely injured. What the hell were they going to do?

He tightened his range again, concentrating on the fight below. A scream. That was Bickslow. He focused. Two attackers, not one. Erik would be better off with some help. Fight smarter, not harder. That's why they had teams.

Who was free? He listened carefully.

Perfect.

"Come on, Cubelios – time to do some rescuing." Erik had to focus on the here and now, or he'd get them both killed.

* * *

"Come on, Shorty, this ain't the time to be sitting down on the job."

"I figured out you were a double agent, you know."

"Why am I not surprised? Stop smiling like that – we're in the middle of a battle!"

* * *

Well, Bickslow now knew two things: this had been a trap, and without his eyes he was totally screwed. Beyond screwed. He was a dead man walking. Well, crouching. It was instinct left over from before Laxus had found him. Crunch up into as small a ball as possible – it left less of your body exposed to attack. Fuck, his eyes hurt.

"Oh, don't worry – it's not permanent. Well, that dose wasn't. You'll be able to see again in a few days. Master Ivan doesn't want you permanently damaged after all." The man's voice sounded incredibly smug. "You're exactly the kind of recruit he's looking for. I mean, seith magic that uses _human_ souls? That's not just skirting gray magic – it's bordering on black! However did you manage to get into this guild? Didn't anybody ever _ask_ where your – what do you call them – your babies _came from_? Oh, and those figure eyes. Using humans like puppets. Very dark. I bet the Magic Council had kittens when then found out about _you_."

There was a murmur of a different voice. Something wrapped around Bickslow's neck and lifted him off the ground until his toes were barely scraping the cobbles. Impressive, considering how tall he was, but it definitely wasn't a human hand holding him up. He scrabbled at it with his fingers. It felt gross and gooey. Probably the same stuff that was holding his babies hostage. The guy who had wrecked Bickslow's eyes was monologue-ing again.

"Master Ivan would help you reach your full potential. In Raven Tail, you wouldn't have to hold back your talents. You could –"

"Oh my god, why are you still talking?" Bickslow groaned. Seriously, evil villain speeches were so predictable and dull.

"W-What?"

"Seriously, I am a Fairy Tail wizard," Bickslow wheezed. "We are notoriously stubborn. Your evil speechifying isn't going to work on me. It didn't even work on Gajeel when he was probably still fresh out of Phantom Lord. That's just sad." He grinned and let his tongue loll out. "I bet all the other dark guilds are too embarrassed to even acknowledge know- urk!" The thing around his throat tightened.

"Well, if that's the way you feel, then I guess you're no use to us after all. Poison make-"

"I think not." There was a flapping of wings, and then the flutter and thud of someone wearing a long coat landing dramatically in the alley between Bickslow and Mr. Monologue. Sounded like Erik. He did like a dramatic entrance.

"Poison make: lance!"

There was a distinctive slurping sound.

"That was delicious. What's your secret? Hemlock?"

"Oh my god! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

Ah, the familiar final words of most of Erik's opponents.

There was a snarl and another thud from Bickslow's left. Sounds of a struggle. A cut off scream. The thing around his neck abruptly let go, and he hit the ground _hard_.

"Sorry about that. I had to knock her out. Are you okay?" The voice was light, feminine and familiar, but Bickslow couldn't place it.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, babies, are you safe now?"

"Safe! Safe!" came the response, followed by five solid impacts against his chest. His shoulders sagged in relief. He could feel their five bright little souls again, even if he couldn't see them.

"Come on – let's get you somewhere safer."

Bickslow sighed.

"That sounds great, but I can't see a damn thing." At the horrified intake of breath, he added, "You're timing was good, so it's temporary."

"Temporary! Temporary!" his babies chorused.

"Well, then I guess I'll have to be your eyes for the moment."

Small fingers gripped his right hand and placed it on a delicate shoulder.

"Listen, sorry to ask, but who are you? I don't recognize your voice."

A slightly sad laugh.

"I'm not surprised you don't remember me. I'm Lisanna Strauss. We used to talk sometimes before I was sucked up by anima and ended up in Edolas. I haven't been back very long."

Bickslow felt his breath catch in his throat, and his grip involuntarily tightened on her shoulder.

"No. I- I remember you."

* * *

Gajeel just caught the flicker of movement on the edge of his vision. Saw the spell charging. One last suicidal shot before the bastard was out of power. Saw the three people in the line of fire. Speedy. Fishtail. _Shorty_.

Hell no.

No time to scream, only to run.

He pulled up his iron scales.

The shot smashed through scales and ribs and internal organs. But it didn't go through his back. Good.

The dark wizard collapsed.

Gajeel's vision started to go dark around the edges as his knees buckled.

Huh. Hell of a way to go out.

" _ **GAJEEL!**_ "

* * *

"I want you to join me."

"The old man was right – you are nuts."

"You have been ejected from the guild just like I was! Surely you understand-"

"I understand that I hurt others and that I deserved the punishment I received. I _learned_. Something that you are obviously incapable of."

"If you're not with me, then you are against me, and I shall be forced to cut you down!"

"I have a better idea. This has gone on long enough."

"No! How can you even-? You're not even a part of the guild anymore!"

" _FAIRY LAW!_ "

* * *

The golden light touched every part of the city and when it faded, not a single Raven Tail wizard was left standing. The Magic Council's armed forces arrived just in time to arrest the remaining, gibbering members of Raven Tail, put out fires, and render medical assistance.

* * *

"How's the master?"

"He should be fine once he wakes up. He took a hell of a blow the head."

* * *

"Please, help him! I got his heart restarted but-"

"We'll take it from here, madam."

"Don't worry, Levy. Gajeel will make it – he's tough."

"Let's go get you washed up."

* * *

"Any casualties?"

"None so far. Only serious injuries and property damage caused by the dark guild. Several Fairy Tail wizards require surgery."

"Make sure they get everything they need. We're in their debt this time."

* * *

 _The world breathes out a gentle sigh of relief. Another volcano day has past._


	26. One of Us

_Chapter 26: One of Us_

* * *

Gajeel had expected to wake up alone. Alright, no – that was a lie. Gajeel hadn't expected to wake up _at all_. The last thing he remembered was someone blowing a massive fucking hole in his chest that had to have taken out at least one of his lungs, if not more. So, yeah, waking up at all was kind of a surprise.

Peeling open his eyes to find three worried faces hovering over him on top of that was one hell of a shock.

The fact that said three faces belonged to Shorty, Speedy, and Fishtail was almost beyond his brain's ability to comprehend. And to be honest, he still wasn't completely convinced that he wasn't actually dead. Though if Levy was here, that meant that he hadn't ended up in Hell – another surprise.

So, really, Gajeel felt that he was perfectly justified when the first words he managed to wheeze out were,

"Aw, damn it, you're all dead, too?"

Because he'd gotten a massive hole blown in his chest trying to prevent exactly that. The whole point of this had been that they were supposed to _live_. Shit.

Levy blinked those massive brown eyes at him in confusion, and then she had the nerve to _laugh_.

"We're not dead, you idiot. You _lived_."

Gajeel squinted at her, trying to decide if she was lying. Either she had an excellent poker face, or that was the truth. After a moment of consideration, he settled on,

"Huh."

Jet was smirking at him. So was Droy. It was annoying. Why couldn't they go back to them being scared of him and Gajeel not giving a shit about anybody – especially Fairy Tail weaklings? It had been so much easier back then.

 _And lonelier_ , a little part of his mind added, but Gajeel valiantly ignored it. It was definitely just whatever drugs they were pumping into his system talking.

"Ya know, I never thought I'd see the day," Droy commented, "when Black Steel Gajeel would pull a self-sacrifice play."

Gajeel scowled at him. The whole point of 'self-sacrifice plays' was that you weren't supposed to live to have to deal with the results.

"Yup," agreed Jet. He was grinning obnoxiously, damn him. "You saved our lives, plus that of our fearless leader here." He patted Levy on the shoulder. Levy beamed. And, oh, that smile. It made his shriveled wreck of a heart wish that he could be a better person.

"And so we've decided," Levy continued, "that we're keeping you."

There was a pause. Gajeel blinked at them owlishly.

"…what?" He must have been hearing the medication again.

Levy's smile just widened further.

"Welcome to Team Shadow Gear! We've already filed the official paperwork with the master."

"…what?"

Jet nudged Levy with his elbow,

"I think you broke him."

She gave Gajeel's arm a pat.

"We could use some muscle on the team. We mostly specialize in creative solutions and research, but you never know what might pop up on a mission. Besides, from what Lily tells me, you're not a half-bad mechanic either." She looked positively smug.

The fuck was wrong with these people?

"But why the hell would you want _me_?" Then Gajeel blurted out before he could stop himself, "The first time I met you _I nearly killed all three of you_! Why the _hell_ would you ever consider trusting me?!" They must have him on the _good_ drugs, because he had _definitely_ not meant to say that.

"Well, among other things, you did let Jet and Droy _try_ to beat you up," Levy began flippantly but sobered at the glare Gajeel leveled at her. "You saved our lives. You saved the entire guild. Master Makarov says that you've been acting as a double agent since you joined Fairy Tail. And," she hesitated and looked away, "you died protecting us."

Gajeel's frown became confused.

"What do you mean I died, Shorty? I thought you said I _wasn't_ dead."

"Your heart stopped. Three times." Levy still wasn't looking at him. "I got it restarted the first time, and the doctors said they nearly lost you twice more on the operating table." She bit her lip. Jet and Droy were watching her with concern.

Oh.

"Which shows a truly staggering disregard for your own life," Droy continued before the mood could drop any lower. "Obviously you need teammates to keep an eye on you so something like this doesn't happen again."

"What about Lily?" But the question was half-hearted. Anything to get that look off of Shorty's face.

"Oh, he's already agreed to join, too," Jet informed him cheerfully. "He helped us fill out the paperwork. We had no idea what your home address was."

Gajeel glanced at Levy and sighed. Aw, hell, he'd made worse decisions. Agreeing to join Phantom Lord sprang to mind. There were much worse things he could be doing with his life than spending more time with Lily, Shorty, and these dorks. He rolled his eyes and sighed again.

"Fine. I'll join your damn team."

And just like that, Levy was smiling again. It was a thing of beauty. Gods, he was so screwed.

"Good. Because you didn't really have a choice anyway."

Gajeel gave her a crooked smile – manipulative little bookworm. He could feel his eyelids beginning to pull themselves shut again. Even this short conversation had left him feeling completely drained. Next time he woke up, he was going to be in so much pain – he could already tell – but for now he was able to drift peacefully.

Part of a team… he liked the sound of that.

The trio's voices continued to drift somewhere up above him, but Gajeel couldn't really make out individual words any more.

Part of a team…. That meant…. That meant that he really did belong somewhere. Even after he'd joined Fairy Tail and gotten strangely attached, he'd never quite felt like he _belonged_ there. Not really. But now… it was a nice feeling.

He belonged.

Gajeel drifted off into a peaceful sleep, a small smile pulling up the corners of his mouth and teammates surrounding his bed.

* * *

 _A/N: Thank you again to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! You're all fantastic!_

 _Guest - No, Flare hadn't joined Raven Tail when the last chapter took place. She's either just left her village or just about to. (Canon is a little hazy on things like age and timing for her as far as I can find.) She doesn't currently make an appearance in any future chapters, but in this universe, she ends up joining Mermaid's Heel, since there is no Raven Tail for her to run into any more. Thank you for your review!_


	27. Out of Step

_Chapter 27: Out of Step_

* * *

There had been a time when Lisanna had felt in perfect harmony with the world. Life was a dance, and she had always danced it with joy because _living_ was a beautiful thing. It was something to be savored and celebrated. And like all dances, she knew it had an end, but the fact that it was finite just made it all the more wondrous. Celebrate life because no one can ever know how long it will last. Lisanna had danced in time with the universe, and life hadn't been perfect, but it had been grand.

And then anima had scooped her up, and for the first time in her dance, Lisanna stumbled. And that was all it took. Even after she returned home years later to Earthland, she never quite found the rhythm again. She was always a step behind the other dancers, and it was so terribly lonely.

Lisanna was one of the few wizards who had fought Raven Tail and come out relatively unscathed. She had just gotten lucky, really, in her opponents. The fact that the one woman had had a terribly rude Edolas counterpart whom Lisanna had _always wanted_ to punch in the face just made things easier. It was the first time she'd been able to use her powers in a fight since she'd returned. For just a moment, Lisanna had felt like she was part of a whole again.

But then that moment had ended, and she was left feeling even emptier than she had before. It was wonderful to be home, but… this wasn't exactly her home anymore, was it? She had been dead and gone, and just like it always did, the world had moved on. No one was quite who she remembered – not even Mirajane and Elfman or Natsu. In a way, it broke her heart. Everyone had moved on without her.

Lisanna shook her head, trying to dispel her gloomy thoughts. There was no time for that right now. Porlyusica and Wendy were being run off their feet even with all the help from the doctors from the hospital. Lisanna was helping in what little ways she could. Right now that meant helping the injured guild members who could not feed themselves. There weren't too many, thankfully. Most, like Elfman, were so cocooned in bandages that they couldn't use their hands. Two wizards had broken both their arms. And then there was Bickslow, who had been blinded. The tray of food in her hands was for him.

Bickslow's cot was one of the few that had curtains around it for a touch of extra privacy and just in case the poison caused some sort of delayed side effect on his figure eyes. The rattle of the curtain rings also let him know when he was no longer alone.

Lisanna pushed back the curtain. Bickslow had his eyes closed and appeared to be asleep. His wooden dolls were nestled on the pillow around his head. The bruises around his throat had turned a dark, ugly purple. This was the first time she had seen him since rescuing him in that alley.

"Are you awake?" she asked quietly.

"Yup," came the immediate response, "just not much point in keeping my eyes open if they're not actually doing anything." Bickslow grinned and opened unfocused, red eyes. "It's Lisanna, isn't it? Have I got the right voice this time?"

"Got it in one. I brought lunch. I got you a roast beef and cheddar sandwich with mustard."

"Hey! My favorite!" Bickslow pulled himself into a sitting position and turned his head in her general direction. "How'd ya guess?"

"Guess! Guess!" murmured the wooden dolls, but they didn't move from their place on the pillow.

"I didn't guess – you told me," Lisanna smiled.

"Really?" Bickslow looked surprised. "When?"

"When you- Oh, hell, I'm so sorry." Lisanna felt her shoulders sag. "It wasn't technically you who told me."

"Ah, you learned my secrets while you were traversing the strange backward universe. Good to know I have good taste in sandwiches no matter where I am. Come," he patted the edge of his cot, "hand over that sandwich, and regale me with tales of your adventures."

Lisanna let out an indelicate snort.

"Regale you?" Most people had lost interest in hearing about Edolas after asking about what their alternate selves had been like.

"I can use fancy words when I want to," Bickslow sniffed. "After all, I've been on the same team as Freed for _years_. Just don't tell him I said that – he'll start thinking that I can be taught or something. Anyway, I'm bored out of my mind! Freed and Ever are injured, Laxus is sleeping off the backlash of doing Fairy Law when you're not actually a guild member, I can't read or play cards, and my babies are many things, but they are not good conversationalists. I'm going nuts here. Well," he amended, "more nuts. Think of it as an act of mercy. Besides, I'm curious."

"Well, alright, I guess." Lisanna sat down on the edge of the cot and set the tray and sandwich on his lap.

Bickslow felt out the shape of the sandwich with gentle fingers and then picked up half.

"My only request is that you tell me if I end up wearing any of my lunch – mustard and roast beef is just not a good look on me."

"Of course."

"Excellent. Story time!"

And so Lisanna told him. She talked about rivers in the sky and floating mountains and dying magic and winged cats that people thought were angels. She talked about a Mirajane who had always been sweet, an Elfman who cried over almost anything, a Natsu who was a complete wimp unless he was behind the wheel of his car, a Levy who screamed at everybody, an Erik with an incredibly sensitive constitution. She talked about a guild on the constant brink of destruction and always on the run but still trying to help. And she talked about death and how she had learned to fear the shadow of a woman she had once looked up to and a group of brave people more than half gone by the time anima had finally stolen Earthland's Fairy Tail.

When Lisanna finally stopped, her voice was starting to go hoarse and Bickslow's sandwich was long gone. Lisanna had been staring at the curtains most of the time she'd been speaking. Bickslow sat quietly for a moment and then murmured,

"Do you miss them?"

Her head snapped around to stare at him, eyes wide, because no one – _no one_ – had asked her that. Not once since she had returned.

"Y-yes. I- I- I do." Her eyes began to well. " _I really do_!" And Lisanna burst into tears. Because even though Edolas had been strange and not really her world, _they had been her friends_. She had loved them like the family she had been torn away from in Earthland. It didn't matter that she had never quite fit in, because she had spent two years loving and grieving with all of them and being ripped away from them even after she'd decided to stay had _shredded her heart_. And then she'd been home, she'd had _her_ brother and sister back – not the other Lisanna's – but it was only to discover that Earthland wasn't really _home_ anymore either. Nothing was quite the same – _she_ wasn't quite the same – and nothing ever would be again. But Lisanna had kept up appearances for Elfman and Mira, and nobody had ever asked if she was happy or if she missed Edolas, because why would she? She was _home_. She _must_ be happy. But she wasn't. She missed Edolas and the other Fairy Tail like an ache in her heart. She had survived a _war_ with them, but she would never be able to see them enjoy the peace that came after. And the world she had come home to was almost as alien as the one she had left. There was no place left for her anymore.

It was a relief to finally let go of the façade that she was alright.

"Oh, shit! Are you crying? Did I make you cry? Did I say the wrong thing? I'm really good at that." Bickslow reached out, found her shoulders, and then reached up to hold her face. He wiped away the tears on her cheeks with his thumbs. "Yeah, I made you cry. Sorry. Ever usually just beats me with her fan if I do something particularly insensitive." He paused as a thought apparently occurred to him. "Feel free to go ahead and slap me, by the way, if I'm being too forward here. I just remembered that I'm not really supposed to go around grabbing people's faces. Oops."

"No, it's okay." Lisanna grabbed his hands before he could remove them. In Edolas, holding someone's face between your hands was a common way of comforting friends and family. With all the losses in Edolas's Fairy Tail guild, it had been a constant in her life for the past two years. She had missed this. "You said… just the right thing."

"Well, that's a first," Bickslow grinned and stuck out his tongue. "Don't ya ever talk to anybody about what happened?"

"No. No one really asks, and… I don't want to upset Mirajane and Elfman. They're still half waiting for me to disappear any time they turn around." She finally released his hands, and he let them fall away.

"Well…," Bickslow hesitated, looking awkward, "if ya ever needed to talk, I could, you know, listen."

"Are you sure?"

He waved a hand dismissively, and then subconsciously tugged at the cuffs of his long sleeves. Lisanna's eye caught the faint edges of old scars peeking out around his wrists.

"Yup. Don't want to keep stuff like that bottled up inside – your soul will crackle. And a soul like yours definitely shouldn't crackle."

"A soul like mine?"

"Uh," Bickslow faltered. He obviously hadn't meant to say that bit. "Yeah. Bright. Shiny. Lotsa little rainbows. …Um, this is the part where people usually start freaking out."

"Why? It sounds fascinating."

"Because everybody finds my soul sight freaky. Even Laxus. It usually gets us kicked out of bars."

"So you've never had anybody to talk to about your soul sight?" Lisanna asked.

"Noooo…."

"I'd like to hear more about it."

"Really? Are you running a fever or something?"

"No, but it does sound really interesting, and if you'd ever be willing to tell me about it, I'd be willing to listen, too." Bickslow didn't have an answer to this – he was too busy gaping. She grasp his face between her hands and touched their foreheads together. "Thank you for listening… and for asking. It helped." She sat back. The tips of Bickslow's ears were tinted pink.

"Was that, uh, was that an Edolas thing?"

"Yes. It's a way of properly thanking friends."

"Oh…." He looked slightly baffled. "You're welcome."

"I need to get going. Mira and the others are going to wonder where I've gotten to." Lisanna stood. "I'll stop by again later to make sure you don't go mad with boredom."

Bickslow nodded firmly,

"Good plan. I like this plan." He stretched out on his cot again. "Remember to rattle the curtain rings when you come back!"

"I will." And Lisanna left with a genuine smile and a lighter heart than she'd had in more than two years.

* * *

 _A/N: Thank you to both of my guest reviewers from last chapter!_


	28. The Right Thing to Do

_A/N: Thank you all for your patience and kind reviews. Let's just say that the last four months have been... distinctly hellish and leave it at that. And now, at long last, without any further ado, I give you... a new chapter._

* * *

 _Chapter 28: The Right Thing to Do_

* * *

Laxus stared at the ceiling of the guildhall. He wasn't really sure what he was doing there. It wasn't that he'd been expecting to just be abandoned where he fell but… he'd been banished from the guild. He ought to just be in the hospital. He had no right to be in the Fairy Tail guildhall.

"That was a really stupid thing you did, you know."

Laxus nearly levitated. He had only just woken up and hadn't realized there was even anyone near his bed. Ultear watched his flailing with feigned disinterest, but Laxus had known her long enough to spot the undercurrent of amusement. He lay back again with a sigh.

"'Stupid' covers a lot of things I've done lately – you're going to have to be more specific."

"Using Fairy Law after being banished from the guild should have killed you. There are safeguards in the spell that ensure no one outside of Fairy Tail can use it. A fact that you are _perfectly well aware of._ "

Laxus didn't meet her eye.

"It needed to be done. The old man was right – Dad really did lose his mind after Mom died. He would have killed everybody." The sigh escaped Laxus in a long, unexpected rush. He hadn't wanted to believe, hadn't been able to bring himself to accept the truth until he saw Magnolia burning with his own two eyes. Until he heard the bright insanity dancing in his father's voice as he spoke. It had hurt even more than he had expected it to – like someone was tearing something deep and precious out of his chest.

Ultear just snorted, but a smile was trying to sneak onto her face now.

"What a moronically Fairy Tail answer. It's nice to see you finally got your head out of your ass."

"Is everyone alright?" Laxus asked, blithely ignoring that comment. He'd had several months to work on straightening out his priorities and worry about how Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen were getting on without him.

"Well, nobody's dead, if that's what you mean, though Gajeel did give it his best try. If it hadn't been for Wendy, there would have been casualties."

Laxus didn't quite sigh in irritation, because he _did_ care that no one from Fairy Tail had died, but Ultear also knew that that wasn't what he had _meant_.

"How are Freed, Ever, and Bickslow?"

"Freed sprained his knee, Evergreen got some burns which should heal without any significant scarring, and Bickslow is currently blind," Ultear rattled off, watching his face carefully.

Laxus had been nodding along until she got to the part about Bickslow.

"What do you mean _blind_?!" Laxus tried to rocket upright in bed and then remembered why that wasn't a good idea. All his muscles protested in unison. He fell back down gain, his muscles spasming slightly.

"I said 'currently.' Wendy says it's not permanent." Ultear casually adjusted the sling that was holding her left arm immobile.

Laxus sighed. He recognized this passive aggressive pattern.

"You're still mad at me, aren't you?"

Ultear looked up from her sling and gave him a long, cool look.

"I don't care that you got Evergreen to turn me into a stone statue. I'm not even overly upset that you tried to use the thunder palace on Magnolia. But Gray and Lyon got trapped in one of Freed's word spells together, and I don't know if I can forgive you for that."

"Ah." Laxus looked away. That was one of the fights he'd been particularly interested in during the Battle of Fairy Tail when it had been happening. The Ice Djinn Trio rarely fought amongst themselves. They generally presented a unified front to the world. Obviously Ultear was the strongest of the three since she was S-class, but which of the others was stronger – Gray or Lyon? Static or animated magic? He'd been rather disappointed with the apparent results. The two had done seemly nothing for several minutes, then Gray had cold clocked Lyon, and that had been it. Boring. Laxus had moved on to being mad at Bickslow for losing to some little twig of a new girl. At the time, he hadn't even felt the smallest smidgen of regret. Now, just thinking about it made him feel sick.

Laxus had been there the day that Ultear, Gray, and Lyon had arrived. The young Ice Djinn Trio had refused to let each other out of their sight for days. Maybe even weeks. He remembered their eyes – large and haunted. Gray had been the hot-head of the group – quick to pick fights and throw magic at anyone who looked at them the wrong way. Lyon had been quieter but equally dangerous to anyone who so much as breathed a wrong word about his sister and brother. Ultear had been overprotective of her brothers to the point of practically being feral. All they had left in the world was each other. Laxus had been able to see it in the desperation of their every move. Years and trust and friendship had sanded the jagged edges smooth, but even close to a decade later that core of desperation was still there.

"I know-" Laxus stopped and cleared his throat when his voice cracked unexpectedly. He tried again, "I know it's not enough, but I am sorry. For what I did." He hesitated. Even after months of introspection and nearly sacrificing himself for the guildmates he'd harmed, the words were hard to force passed the lump in his throat. "It was… cruel. I'm sorry."

Ultear was silent. Laxus hadn't really expected her to say anything, but he'd needed to say the words. There were still a lot of words that needed to be said – to Ultear, to his grandfather, to Bickslow, Freed, and Ever –, but those would come later. The silence continued to stretch on for an uncomfortable five minutes before Ultear finally broke it.

"Hurry up and finish sleeping off that backlash. We need all hands on deck to help with the rebuilding." She looked away and fiddled with the edge of her sling again before turning to go.

Laxus blinked, and his eyebrows furrowed,

"What?"

Ultear glanced back at him over her shoulder,

"I told you it was a moronically Fairy Tail thing that you did. Welcome back to the guild, moron." The corner of Ultear's mouth ticked up ever so slightly. She walked away before Laxus managed to form any sort of response.

Laxus lay back and stared up at the ceiling for a moment. Then he closed his eyes. If he was going to help out with the reconstruction, he needed to rest up.

He wasn't forgiven. Maybe he'd never be forgiven. But he was being given a chance.

Laxus couldn't ask for more than that.

* * *

 _A/N: The next chapter will be posted on Friday since this chapter was so long in coming._


	29. Ghosts of Days Past

_Chapter 29: Ghosts of Days Past_

* * *

The important thing was that Gray and Lyon would heal. Though Ultear was probably going to have nightmares for the next decade about Lyon's lung collapsing without any warning whatsoever and his lips turning blue again. Thank heavens for Wendy.

Their home had not been too badly damaged. It was mostly cosmetic. They had been lucky. A good section of Fairy Hills had been completely demolished. Many wizards were currently living out of tents set up behind the guildhall. Those who could were bunking with friends whose homes were still livable. Levy was currently sleeping on Ultear's couch when she wasn't at the guild keeping an eye on Gajeel, the newest shanghaied member of Shadow Gear. Jet and Droy were apparently staying with Nab, and Lucy was crashing with Natsu and Happy since her apartment now had a panoramic hole instead of windows. Levy had salvaged what she could from the rubble of her apartment. The trunk she kept her pictures and keepsakes in had only been a little battered and singed, but almost everything else had been ruined. She'd told Ultear that none of the books she had lost had been irreplaceable, but Levy mourned books like people and for her she had lost a library of old friends. She had seemed relieved, though, when she had dug through her trunk and found an old but undamaged book of Boscan fairy tales.

Ultear adjusted her sling. Gray had been cleared by Porlyusica and the doctors to go home today on crutches. Lyon needed another day or two more of healing before he could be moved. Ultear had brought him another book on magical theory to keep him entertained. Even after knowing him for so many years, Ultear still couldn't fathom how Lyon found theory so interesting. Along with the book, she had brought a further bribe to encourage good behavior (though Gray was usually the more problematic of her brothers when he was injured) – a fresh cup of earl grey tea with just a touch of cream and honey. Earl grey was one of Lyon's great weaknesses, and Ultear exploited it shamelessly. Gray preferred spiced cider or chai tea. Ultear was the only real coffee drinker of their group. Actually, hot spiced cider was exactly what Ultear planned to bribe Gray with to make sure that he actually used his crutches. Getting the boys to cooperate was all about knowing their weaknesses.

Climbing the stairs took a little more concentration when her only free hand was occupied with tea. It was amazing how little things could affect your balance. Thankfully, the tea was in a deep, sturdy mug instead of one of those fastidious little tea cups Lyon liked to use at home and that Gray teased him mercilessly about. She didn't spill a drop even when she almost ran into a doctor going the other way. Finally – the top of the stairs.

"I can see just fine!"

"Fine! Fine!"

"Oh yeah? Then how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Uhhh…."

"Exactly. Your cunning escape will have to wait."

"But I'm _bored_. At least give me my helmet back. I need it. Today's a good day, but I'm really sick o' staring at curtains."

"Why would you need your helmet?"

"…Let's just say my eyes aren't as reliable as Freed's and Ever's."

Ultear looked up, and suddenly she wasn't an adult, S-class wizard standing on the second floor of Fairy Tail any more. She was a small frightened child being dragged by the arm towards that horrible room with the deformed sun.

 _Ultear didn't know how long she had been trapped there. Weeks? Months? And in all that time she hadn't seen a single face – not one human face. Just that horrid sun grinning down from above her. All her captors wore masks._

 _So when she was dragged around a corner and saw another child being lead down the hall, it suck in her mind. He looked… resigned. Broken. His arms were littered with ugly scars, and his eyes were haunted. And Ultear had known, with a startling clarity, that that would be her. If her mother didn't come for her soon, if she didn't escape, that boy would be her._

 _Ultear was jerked back the way she had come mere seconds later, but his face stayed burned into her memory, because it had been a distinctive face – blue hair, red eyes. Even so, it might still have faded… if it hadn't been for the navy blue stick man branded into the center of his face._

Ultear wasn't even aware of the mug of tea slipping from her fingers until it shattered on the floor. The sound broke her trance. Part of her mind noticed the distinctive location of the guild mark on the man's tongue – had she really never seen Bickslow without his visor before even after all these years? – but most of her attention was focused on the magical mark spanning Bickslow's bridge of nose, cheekbones, and forehead. She didn't even notice as her feet carried her across the room in the opposite direction from Gray and Lyon.

"Is something wrong?" asked Lisanna, concern in her eyes, but Ultear was too focused to notice.

She stopped less than a foot in front of Bickslow who was sitting on the edge of his cot. Red eyes, blue hair, navy stick man. It _had_ to be him, but there was one other thing….

"Hey, new blobby person who I think is Ultear," Bickslow waved his arms in front of himself, leaning back, "I don't have much of a person space bubble, but this is- Hey! No!"

Ultear grabbed one of his flailing arms by the wrist and shoved the long sleeve down. Bickslow wrenched his arm back and practically folded in on himself, quickly pulling his sleeve back into place. It had been enough, though. She had seen and recognized the vicious patterns of scars.

"You where there. I remember you," Ultear murmured, barely aware that she was speaking. "You were at the Bureau of Magical Development…."

"How could you- How could you possibly-" His voice sounded very small and lost.

"Most of my scars are on my back. I saw you in the hall once. I remembered your mark." Her voice sounded almost dreamy to her ears, and Ultear felt like she was floating a foot or so above her own body. She kept most of her memories of that time in her life locked tightly away, but now they were starting to leak out.

Bickslow was gaping at her, dark red eyes wide.

"The little girl with the ice magic. That was you. I thought you had died."

Ultear shook her head.

"I escaped. When my- When my mother found out what was happening, she reported them, and they were shut down."

Ultear found herself being unexpectedly dragged down and crushed against a solid chest in a one armed hug.

"Thank you." It was quiet and half mumbled into her hair. "I don't think… I wouldn't have made it much longer. _Thank you_."

There was a series of thuds and then an all too familiar voice was grumbling,

"What the hell, 'Tear? Why are you hugging Bickslow?" Ultear could hear the question Gray wasn't asking: 'Are you okay?' Bickslow let go of her, and she straightened up. Gray was leaning heavily on a pair of crutches and switching between shooting her concerned glances and glaring at Bickslow.

"He was at the Bureau, too. Until now… I hadn't realized…." Her voice was still dazed. Ultear didn't have to specify. In their little family, there was only ever one 'Bureau.'

Gray sucked in a sharp breath and suddenly any irritation at Bickslow melted away in the face of his concern for Ultear.

"Ah, hell." Balancing carefully on his crutches, Gray reached out and squeezed her upper arm. Ultear let out a long sigh and focused on the comforting grip, using it to help ground herself again. The dizzy, floating feeling began to fade.

Ultear looked down to find Bickslow still watching her with serious, if unfocused, eyes.

"Your soul's healed well." She blinked at him, and he suddenly seemed to realize what he had said. "Aw, that was awkward. I probably shouldn't have said that. And I'm not even drunk – all my normal excuses are gone."

"It's okay." And it was, because Ultear had always assumed that her time in that place had damaged her beyond all repair. The idea that she had healed on at least some level was… comforting.

"Well, that's a relief. It's kind of nice not to be regularly beaten with a fan." Bickslow gave her one of his more normal, wide grins, but he didn't stick his tongue out. Ultear supposed that he was still pretty shaken by this whole situation as well. He opened his mouth to say something else. His eyes flared green. He snapped them shut. "Shit. Hey, Lisanna, could ya grab me a visor or sunglasses or a blindfold or somethin'?"

"Sure. I think Mira has some sunglasses that someone forgot behind the bar." Lisanna hurried off down the stairs.

"What's wrong with your eyes?" asked Ultear. Part of her was insisting she should be leaving, but the rest of her refused to move. Gray was still gripping her arm.

"They did plenty of breaking – never got around to the fixing. Don't always work quite right." He didn't explain further, but she thought she understood what he meant.

Lisanna returned a few minutes later, a pair of sunglasses in one hand and a replacement for the dropped mug of earl grey in the other. She handed Ultear the mug and then carefully placed the sunglasses in the hand Bickslow didn't have clamped over his eyes. They looked like the ones Gajeel usually wore when he was torturing the guild via guitar.

"Better?" Lisanna asked, as Bickslow slid the glasses on.

"Snazzy." The dimmed green glow of his eyes looked eerie behind the smoky lenses. "I feel like I should be striking a pose."

Ultear was distracted by the feeling of something light landing on her shoulder. She turned her head to find a small sparrow crafted from ice staring up at her. It had large, soulful eyes. It gave a little hop and cheeped at her. Ultear glowered at it. While it was very sweet of Lyon to be trying to cheer her up, _he wasn't supposed to be using any magic_. She turned her glare to the guilty party on the far side of the room. Lyon gave her a little wave from the mound of pillows he was propped up on. Ultear let out an aggravated sigh.

"Your brother is being a moron again," she informed Gray.

He shrugged,

"Well, he is adopted."

"You're both adopted."

"Nobody's perfect. Give him his tea – that should distract him for a while."

Ultear hesitated, glancing back at Bickslow. He was now striking several poses that he had deemed appropriate for the sunglasses.

She had always wondered what had happened to the boy she had seen at the Bureau. She had… she had hoped that he had been alright. But she hadn't honestly believed it. Mostly, she had come to terms with the fact that she would never know. And now, years later, the answer had been right under her nose this entire time. And maybe he hadn't been entirely alright, but somewhere along the line, he had ended up at Fairy Tail and found a team. He'd found a family.

And Ultear was glad.

She smiled and headed over to scold Lyon and give him his tea. It felt good to no longer be the only survivor. Later, perhaps they could talk more somewhere a little less public. For now, Ultear had idiotic younger brothers to deal with.

* * *

 _A/N: Thanks for reading!_


	30. The Tomato Sandwich Incident

_Chapter 30: The Tomato Sandwich Incident_

* * *

Doranbolt wished he could have seen Magnolia before a dark guild had tried to burn it to the ground. It must have been beautiful. It was still beautiful underneath the charring and the rubble, and some areas were far less damaged than others. The only building that seemed to have been left wholly undamaged was Fairy Tail's guildhall. The madman, Ivan Dreyar, had apparently intended to keep it as a trophy. Now it acted as a temporary hospital for the wizards who had been severely injured during the battle. If it hadn't been for the wizards of Fairy Tail, hundreds of people would have been killed and Magnolia would have been leveled. The Council was in their debt.

Next to Doranbolt, Lahar was making tight, unhappy faces. Disorganization and chaos gave him hives, and Fairy Tail was nothing if not notoriously chaotic. He hadn't been complaining – because Lahar _never_ complained about orders – but Doranbolt could tell that his friend was deeply unhappy about this.

"Cheer up," Doranbolt gave Lahar's shoulder a light bump. "I'll do all the talking. You can just stand there and look disapproving."

Lahar didn't exactly glare at him, but it was close.

"I do not have to approve of their methods to appreciate what they have done," he muttered under his breath. Doranbolt resisted the urge to roll his eyes and pushed open the guildhall's massive doors.

The inside of the building was much lighter and airier than Doranbolt had expected. Much more cheerful, too. Most of the wizards were sporting bandages or casts of some sort even a little more than a week after the fight. Doranbolt recognized most of their faces from the files that the Council kept on all of them. There were Erza Scarlet and Ultear Milkovich over by the bar. Jellal Fernandes was leaning against a pillar reading a book. Natsu Dragneel was wildly gesticulating on top of a table despite his heavily bandaged chest while others egged him on and a blonde girl tried to drag him down. Mirajane Strauss was serving drinks. Erik Zmeya was sitting at a table off to one side with his flying serpent and drinking something suspicious looking. It was like a who's who of Fiore's most dangerous and destructive wizards.

Silence fell as the guild members noticed the newcomers.

"If you're here to try and arrested Jellal again," somebody called, "Erza's probably gonna break out her purgatory armor." The expressions on everyone's faces indicated that they'd also hold them down for her.

Doranbolt blanched slightly. He'd read about that armor.

"No, no! We're not here to arrest anybody! We came to speak to Master Makarov," Doranbolt grinned and waved his arms desperately in a very undignified manner. The murder in the air abruptly vanished.

"Oh, he's upstairs!" Mirajane appeared smiling in front of them with a speed that even Doranbolt found impressive. "I'll just take you up now."

"Thank you."

Upstairs was where the injured were being kept. There were more faces Doranbolt recognized. Freed Justine was sitting on the edge of a cot stiffly pulling on a jacket. Elfman Strauss was sitting up eating a meal. Juvia Lockster was bandaged up to the neck and appeared to be asleep. On the next cot over from hers, Gajeel Redfox also appeared to be asleep and still had a line for fluids and medicine connected to his arm. Levy McGarden, team leader of Shadow Gear and on record as the one wizard from Fairy Tail whom the Council desperately wanted to recruit, was sitting in a chair next to him reading. Those were just the people who Doranbolt remembered the name of. He recognized more. There were at least fifteen occupied beds.

Master Makarov Dreyar wasn't in one of the beds – he was drifting from cot to cot, checking on how his people were doing. There was a fading but ugly bruise on his forehead. A girl with long blue pigtails was also circulating between the cots. She stopped and had a quiet word with Levy before she held her hands over Gajeel and….

Was that _healing magic?!_

"Master, these two gentlemen from the Council are here to talk with you, and they've promised that they're not arresting anyone," Mirajane beamed.

"Oh, have they now?" The master's smile looked friendly but there was also something vaguely menacing about it. "Well then, why don't you two young men come with me, and we can talk in my office."

The large window in Makarov's office had an excellent view of the horizon and the… pool? They had a pool behind their guild?

"Now, gentlemen," Makarov began, settling behind his desk which was buried beneath a truly horrific amount of paperwork, "what can I do for you?"

"Actually, the real question is, what can we do for you?" Doranbolt gave a formal bow from the waist as did Lahar. "Without your guild's quick and decisive action, many lives would have been lost, and Magnolia would have been destroyed. Our forces were too slow to mobilize even after the warning you sent us. In short, the Magic Council is in your debt, and they have sent us to begin making reparations."

Doranbolt sensed more than saw Lahar's eye twitch at this and kicked him sharply in the ankle without looking.

Makarov's expression was far off.

"What, exactly, sort of 'reparations' did they have in mind?" he asked.

"Well, to start with we brought two of the Council's disaster relief squads who specialize in repair and construction magic. And the Council has agreed to settle a sum of money on your guild since they realize that many of your wizards are unable to work due to injuries received while stopping the dark guild, Raven Tail." Doranbolt hesitated and then continued, "They are also willing to expunge some of the damage claims currently filed against Fairy Tail."

Makarov looked positively gleefully.

"Yes, I would say that was quite generous of the Magic Council considering they originally discounted Raven Tail as a threat."

Doranbolt shifted uncomfortably.

"Yes… our methods of threat analysis are being… investigated." Nobody was happy with that massive error in judgement. It had made the Council look incredibly bad and was one of the reasons for the unusual levels of generosity. The Magic Council had to save face somehow. They were incredibly lucky that no one from Fairy Tail had been killed as a result of their poor judgement.

"Well, that's some of the best news we've had in a while," Makarov beamed. "Why don't you two come downstairs and have a meal on the house. Messengers of such good news deserve a reward."

Doranbolt ignored Lahar's pointed glance and nodded.

"Thank you – we would be honored."

Lahar was probably going to murder him once they got out of here, but Doranbolt didn't really care. He was hungry.

Makarov got up and opened his office door.

"Wendy, why don't you take a break, and take these two nice young men, who just told me the Council is giving us money, downstairs for something to eat?"

The girl with the blue pigtails looked up. She looked tired but determined.

"But, Master, I still-"

"Take a break, child, and replenish your magic."

"Yes, running yourself ragged isn't going to help anybody," added a small white… talking cat. That was different. "Go eat something. I'll keep an eye on things up here. We don't have any extra beds if you collapse."

"Yes, Charle." She smiled up at them as she walked over. "I'm Wendy. It's nice to meet you."

"I'm Doranbolt, and this is my friend, Lahar." Doranbolt smiled at her. He'd always been kind of fond of kids.

Wendy eyed Lahar.

"Yes, we've met."

When would she have-? Oh, the last time the Council had failed to send aid in time. Lahar had been leading the company. For some reason, in his wisdom, Lahar had attempted to arrest Erik Zmeya along with the dark wizards. Doranbolt had no idea what had possessed him to try something so stupid. It hadn't gone well from what he'd been told. Lahar was very good at making bad first impressions. And second impressions. Thinking about it, it was rather surprising that they had managed to become friends.

Either way, the tension in the air was getting uncomfortable.

"Was that healing magic I saw you using earlier?"

Wendy's expression brighten, and she started to lead them towards the stairs.

"Yes. I'm a sky dragon slayer – it's one of my specialties!" Doranbolt's stride faltered slightly. _Another_ dragon slayer?! How many was that now in Fairy Tail? Five? "I was actually in charge of the evacuation," she continued, oblivious to Doranbolt's thoughts. "I can fight, but I'm the guild's only healer, and the master asked me to save my magic to help with the wounded." She bit her lip.

"That must have been difficult – leaving your friends behind when you knew that they would be in danger."

Wendy nodded, her eyes downcast.

"But he was right. If I hadn't saved my magic, Gajeel, Cana, Max, and Lyon would be dead. Gajeel nearly died anyway."

She had saved four people from fatal injuries? Just how powerful was this kid?

"Well, you may not have been able to fight beside them, but it sounds like you did a good job of protecting your friends anyway."

Wendy brighten.

"I hadn't thought of it that way."

"The strongest wizard can die from a wound just as easily as the weakest without a good healer watching over them."

Wendy smiled.

When they reached the ground floor, Doranbolt was surprised to find one of Fairy Tail's infamous bar fights in full swing despite the fact that most of the wizards participating were still badly injured. Wendy didn't even bat an eye. Doranbolt and Lahar followed as she wove expertly through the seething mass.

"Are they always like this?" Doranbolt narrowly ducked a flying chair.

"Oh, no – usually things are much rowdier. Everybody's still pretty tired."

A blast of ice magic skimmed past Lahar's ear. His eye was doing that twitching thing again. Doranbolt wasn't sure how they made it to the bar unmolested.

"Mira," Wendy began, "the master said-"

 _SMACK!_

A tomato sandwich impacted against the side of Lahar's face. It set his glasses askew and splattered spots of red that would definitely stain across his pristine white uniform. His eye twitched. Then his entire face spasmed. Ever so slowly, he pushed his glasses back into their proper place. Doranbolt vaguely thought that he could see the fires of Hell burning around him. His entire body was shaking. Gravity slowly peeled a slice of tomato off his face, and it fell to the ground.

"That is _it!_ " And Lahar spun around and bodily threw himself into the center of the brawl. Doranbolt gaped at him.

He had _never_ – not _once_ – seen Lahar lose his temper. And now there he was, fists flying, like he mixed it up in bar brawls all the time.

"There must be something in the air," he mumbled. …They were probably going to get fired for this. Maybe. Well, Doranbolt probably wouldn't – Lahar did have more seniority than him which meant that he was supposed to be the more responsible one. Something about setting an example. Maybe if they just didn't mention this part of the trip to their superiors, nobody would care. The Fairy Tail wizards certainly didn't seem to mind. "Um, I don't suppose I could get one of those tomato sandwiches, could I?" he asked Mirajane hopefully. Since he was already here, he might as well eat. And the insides of that sandwich had looked very promising aside from the fact that they had been splatted across Lahar's face and clothes.

"Of course!"

Across the room, Erik Zmeya noticed a golden opportunity and waded into the fray to exact a little revenge. He managed to get in a solid right hook to Lahar's cheek and then waded out again, satisfied. Lahar broke a chair over someone's head, but since that person had transformed their hair into stone, it didn't make much difference.

There was the click of a plate, barely audible over the din. Doranbolt turned to find the most delicious looking tomato sandwich he had ever seen sitting by his elbow. It was gently toasted and smelled of basil. Wendy was watching Lahar with concern.

"Is… he alright?"

"Oh, most certainly not, but he's been wound tighter than a corkscrew since I met him, so maybe this will help."

Doranbolt sat back to enjoy his sandwich and the in-house entertainment.

This was definitely going to make for some _excellent_ blackmail material.

* * *

 _A/N: In my heart of hearts, Lahar was a juvenile delinquent._

 _ **Guest** \- Thank you so much!_


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